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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23962564">Silence</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/0chillwhatsoever/pseuds/0chillwhatsoever'>0chillwhatsoever</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hermitcraft</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>30+ chapters, Abduction, Angst, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Temporary Character Death, Torture, and long, this’ll be sad, warnings will be posted in the beginning of the chapter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:07:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>19,854</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23962564</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/0chillwhatsoever/pseuds/0chillwhatsoever</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Voices can build up easily. Sometimes the silence is good. Other times you realize how much the silence can be overbearing and destructive</p><p>The silence of the Poet is heard. And sooner or later silence will consume the rest of the Hermits.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>110</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>124</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Joe is content. And a visitor comes by.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Slight fainting, abduction, and panic attack/existentialism sort of dream</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The sun was up and the wind blew slightly, allowing the smell of crushed leaves to float through the air, making the bushes around Joe rustle. He picked the berries gently, making sure not to get caught on the thorns. Berry after berry he picked, letting the unripe ones stay to grow, laying the fruit in his basket.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As he picked he ate a little bit as wellplopping the sweet berry in his mouth as he grew hungry.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As he neared the last bush, the sun was higher and the breeze had died down. His shirt ruffled when he turned toward the wind, he smiled contetdly, looking at his work. Walking back to the winery he felt blissful.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Joe looked at the little place. Supposedly mostly everyone else on the server was creating elaborate and gigantic bases but he felt content with the place.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Joe didn’t want to go into the extravagant route. Instead he held a light to his love of Dungeons and Dragons and made the winery from one of the campaign settings. He wanted to make sure this place thrived before anything else and he was fine with that. He wanted to go slow and be in the moment. How long that moment would last would be up for fate to decide. Although he was unsure whether or not fate had a decision in the matter.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Sitting on his bed the man wrote down something coherent and poetic, although he tried to be more so the former than the latter. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The penmanship was eligible but not elegant like you would think. But the thoughts behind the words gave it more beauty than the words themselves.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A knock came at the door.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2"><em>Weird, I’m not expecting anyone</em>.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He checked his communicator to make sure, no one had messaged him directly though. Only some witty banter between everyone made up the chat.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Even more weird.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Another knock sounded, a little desperate.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He rushed to the door, going downstairs the glasses on his face almost fell down entirely, but he righted them back on. He opened the door after he made sure he looked at least a little presentable.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Only a small ink stain seemed to be adorning his blue shirt, but he didn’t mind. The other hermits didn’t really care and Joe knew they wouldn’t just stop talking to him cause of a stain.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em><span class="s2">Or would they? </span> </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He shook the thought away as he opened the door revealing a familiar green patched face.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Cleo! Sorry for the wait, I didn’t expect you.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“It’s ok Joe.” She told him, giving a hug as a </span>
  <span class="s1">hello. He noticed her hair was a deep blue but didn’t question it. “I just wanted to check up with you, make sure you aren’t sleep deprived or anything, especially cause your all alone.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He smiled, of course she’d bring the message in person, but Cleo always made sure he was at least free, “Thank you then, Cleo. I’m doing fine out here, you should probably come inside. It’s getting dark out.” He gestured a hand, opening the door further for her to come in. “How bout you? Anything knew over where your staying?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I’m doing fine,” she smiled, her eyes seemed to be bigger. Not necessarily bigger in size but something felt off about them. Joe couldn’t shake that thought away. “I’ve gotten loads done on my base and such. Also got some new little bits of blue in my hair here.” She gestured to it vaguely.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Mumbo’s button?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yea, all kinds of chaos is going over the button innit? Doc’s been nonstop staring at it. I love how basically everyone else is ruining his chances of red.” She chuckled,” Poor dude, just the other day he swore that he’d blow up the next persons base if they pressed it and then immediately someone did. It’s great fun.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">He chuckled as well, “I heard Grian was the one who did that.”</span> <span class="s1">She smiled wryly, confirming his suspicions. “As you can see my normally blue shirt here is now a wonderful shade of green,” gesturing toward his shirt proudly.</span></p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They continued with this for quite some time. She continued smiling, chuckling here and there.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">After quite some time he looked past her, noticing how late it was.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I should probably get going to bed here soon, Cleo. Maybe I’ll come over to your base tomorrow so we can catch up.” He said looking at her apologetically.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“That’s alright. I should probably get going as well. I didn’t think about time at all. Good night then Joe, hope you sleep well!” She walked away from the house as Joe closed the door.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As soon as he did so his eyes felt heavy.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1"><em><span class="s2">What time is it? </span></em> <span class="s1">He wondered, his head spun slightly.</span></p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He guided his body as quickly toward his bed as possible. As soon as he layed down and closed his eyes, exhaustion overtook him and he slept. Peacefully.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">No dreams filled his head. Only black, darkness, nothing. He felt conscious in the black though. As if it just encircled him and he was left without anything tangible or imaginative. He was just there. A head in space, a space in head.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His mind raced and stood still as he lay. To many and to little thoughts were there in the black. In the nothing.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">***</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The thing grabbed the small human.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“So gullible.” It’s garbled voice clashed with its self, as if multiple people were there, but the singular creature was the one talking. “Hopefully the little Poet will learn his place as quickly as he can be fooled.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Something came out of the black then. A face. A vague face. A happy face. A friendly face.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He couldn’t grasp it. And then pain and hurt and anger took the face. The familiar face. The once happy face. His mind raced more. To many colors fought it’s way in the black, although it was still black in an of itself. The brightness of the black turned darker as he spiraled down. Down what though? His thoughts, his fears, his crying heart. What was he crying for? For time, for friends, for himself. Everything was too muddled, he couldn’t grasp at a single thought or the darkness of the unclear headspace. He was just there.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And as he opened his eyes he wasn’t there, in the black, void. He had forgotten it all together once he came back to consciousness. Even if he wished to remember it, it slipped through the cracks of his mind and he noticed everything didn’t seem right.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Not at all. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter One - Words can be Worrisome</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Cleo worries about her friend. Doc thinks to much.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Typing words in the morning was hard. Thoughts seemed to be muddled, confused.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She continued typing a message to her friend, making sure that it was a nice blend of words.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">Hey Joe! Are you free anytime today? I haven’t seen you in a while now and I want to catch up ya know </span> <strike><span class="s2">and</span> </strike> <span class="s2"> <strike>I’m worried for you.</strike> </span><span class="s1">&lt;3</span> </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Reading over it again seemed to confuse her brain even more, but she deemed the text to be good enough to convey what she was trying to say. Without sounding too anxious.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She left the message to be read as she went to get something done instead of waiting.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She finished some mannequin jobs. No messages from Joe though.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She did some grinding for materials, no messages at all.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">None. At all. She worried but she didn’t want to be annoying, much less make Joe feel bad.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">After hours upon hours of worrying and wondering and waiting she finally just messaged him again.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>ZombieCleo</strong>&gt;: Joe, I’m gonna come over ok?</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Nothing came.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She rushed toward the nearest nether portal, going straight toward Joe’s, not even bothering to look at the button.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As she sped over toward the portal and took out her communicator and messaged Doc and Bdubs.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>ZombieCleo</strong>&gt;: You two pls come over to Joe’s, we may have a situation.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Once out of the nether, Cleo tried as best as she could to look for Joe. Nothing. She looked outside seeing the slightly wilted bushes of berries.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Joe wouldn’t just leave them be like that, she cursed quietly to herself. Pacing quickly back and forth through the long hallway in the winery Cleo waited for Bdubs and Doc.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As they came through the portal she dashed toward them, a clear look of anxiousness had consumed her face.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Where is he? Where’s Joe?” Bdubs said looking around, confusion and worry building in both his and Doc’s faces.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Is he alright, Cleo?” Doc looked at her, expectantly.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She looked between the two, “He isn’t here. At all. He hasn’t even messaged me and his winery looks like it hasn’t seen care in a while. This isn’t like Joe whatsoever.” Their worried faces were less confused now making it easy for Cleo to actually realize the situation. Joe hadn’t been around for who knows how long.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Have you two seen Joe lately?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They shook their heads, Doc put his hand to his chin and Bdub’s fidgeted with his fingers.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She swore loudly, startling the two. Cleo grabbed her communicator, typing words out in the group chat.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>ZombieCleo</strong>&gt;: Joe’s gone. We can’t find him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>xisumavoid</strong>&gt;: Did you check everywhere?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>ZombieCleo</strong>&gt;: Not absolutely everywhere but he isn’t at his base and he hasn’t responded to my messages either</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>GoodTimesWithScar</strong>&gt;: Grian and I haven’t seen him around the shopping district either</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>Grian</strong>&gt;: Yea we haven’t</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The messages kept coming, and her anxiousness soared. If he hadn’t been here long enough that his winery was out of use, then this was worrisome. No one knew what to do.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">No one had information about it.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Which meant multiple things could have happened.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">None of those things were good.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Doc didn’t know what to do. Why couldn’t he have checked up with Joe when he noticed how quiet the winery was.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He had only gone past the winery just a couple days ago and he regretted not looking into the matter.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Him and Bdubs lived so close to him and yet he didn’t check.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He didn’t fucking check!</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Doc was spiraling quickly into himself, still showing a neutral face. He didn’t need his friends worrying about him now.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1"><span class="s3"><em>They wouldn’t need me if I broke down so easily. They all need someone efficient</em>.</span> <span class="s1"> He shook the anxiety away trying to think of what happened, how this happened.</span></p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1"><span class="s3"> <em>Did someone take him? Or hurt him enough that he can’t respond to messages? What if he permadied? </em> </span> <em> <span class="s1">No we would have seen the death message.</span></em></p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Scenarios came up in his mind, crashing down into the pit of despair that he didn’t need. His thoughts wrung rampant, but his face was as neutral as ever. The only sign of anguish was in his eye, it was glazed and tears welled up slightly but never fell.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He needed to think.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And he did.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He thought a little to much.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Doc?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Doc looked up at Bdubs, who seemed panicked but was worried more so for Doc.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Docs mind clicked finally and stopped internalizing and actually helping. Helping would actually benefit in this situation. So he did, he hugged Bdubs. Trying to give him a sense of relief. That everything was going to be fine. That Doc was fine.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Bdubs hugged him back.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But Doc wasn’t fine. He wanted to get his friend back and that was still running circles in his head. His internalization continued but he didn’t show it.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She went straight toward Xisuma’s place.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Finding Xisuma was simple though, because he was in his admin office furiously typing and looking at what could be wrong. His bee helmet was off so she stayed right outside the door and knocked.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He immediately put his helmet back on and spun around, seeing Cleo.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I thought you were I.T..”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Sorry if I scared you, X. Just needed to see that everything’s alright over here.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yea, everything is working properly but I don’t see any blips of misconception in the code. And all activity is the same as usually, although whatever happened could have easily bypassed the system, but nothing could possibly go by without some form of regard to the code. If this were to be a simple bug I would’ve seen it by now.” He continued to ramble using some words Cleo didn’t quite understand, but she listened.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Impulse and Tango came through the doorway after a minute of this and immediately got to work on helping with finding the problem.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She left after that, her stressed demeanor was still visible but knowing that at least two people were helping X figure everything out helped a lot with that stress.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Hopefully they could figure everything out. Because if they didn’t, well, Cleo didn’t really know what would happen. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter Two - Sight Can Trick</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Joe doesn’t have a clue as to what’s going on and Xisuma doesn’t either.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: mental/physical torture, electric shocks, mention of blood</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Joe had somewhat of an idea of where he was. To put it simply he was in a cell.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Not necessarily a cell body with cytoplasm and mitochondrion, although that would be a very interesting place to be, but inside of a cell that would make sure to keep in whatever it was holding. And at this moment it was holding him.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The walls and flooring had differing shades of white, making it seem bright and happy. He didn’t like that all to bright glare of the whites. He had spent most of his time counting blocks. Such as how the room was maybe 13 blocks on each wall and was just about the same height. He was to tired to check and he certainly didn’t want to get closer. He learned that the hard way.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He wasn’t necessarily bound in chains of any sort but as soon as he walked somewhere past three blocks from the center of the room he was zapped severely.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And it wasn’t like the force field sort. He could easily pass his hands through the area of zapping but once either his head or entire body (he wasn’t quite sure) went passed that invisible line he got hurt. He didn’t want to push his hypothesis further of course. Which was probably why he had been staring at the ceiling laying on the floor for the last who knows how long.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It felt like weeks and maybe it was or it could have been days. His mind hadn’t processed anything to do with time and when he tried to count the seconds it did no good.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He started counting the blocks again, wanting to see how long he could count before he was bored. It didn’t last long though because whatever had put him there was now standing in the corner watching him.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He turned toward the figure, although he was still laying on the floor.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Hello fair Poet, how has your stay been?” The figure’s voice held a discordant amount of voices and maybe some animal onomatopoeia’s or sounds. It was unsettling to say the least and he didn’t want them to speak further.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“What do you mean fair Poet? Do you mean fair as in judgement cause I can legitimately justify that this has been a horrible ‘stay’,as you may say.” The figure chuckled at that, the clashing voices and noises didn’t help. “Why am I here?” Joe stood up trying to look imposing toward the stranger. They chuckled again.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“The little Poet is trying to act strong now? Oh you poor thing.” They said mockingly. “would you prefer to be free from this room? What would you do for that, Poet?” The figure loomed closer towering over Joe. “Do you want to see your friends so badly?” Joe looked at them confused and terrified.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The figure smirked still bearing down on the hermit. “Im not going to do anything to them. At least not at the moment. But would you like to see one of them, Joe?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">At the first mention of his name the once dissonant voice sounded familiar. Like Cleo’s.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Her voice seemed to echo from somewhere in the room and he turned to try and find it. When he turned back toward the hulking figure he saw his friend. And she was smiling. And he wasn’t in the cell.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Xisuma was tirelessly scanning for something, anything for his friend. He checked Joe’s location, spawn everything he could think of. Impulse and Tango worked along side him, pattern matching data but the code didn’t budge. He cussed in his mind as he quietly reviewed his code to the potted plant at his desk.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“If this is a outside virus or algorithm then if I make a function and search for any inconsistencies it should in theory find the virus but whoever implemented it used a different string of code to hide it, meaning if I delete any code that could hide said virus then I should get a better outcome then none.” He told the plant what each string of code meant and what it would preform. Finding inconsistencies in his own algorithms and rewriting them accordingly was tricky but helped immensely. Quadruple checking the code with the plant’s aid he presumed the algorithm to be successful.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He gently pressed the enter button.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">This time the screen didn’t show an error.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It showed a message.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong> <em> <span class="s1">Hello there Admin, missing your friend already? Seems a little to late. How about I share a little secret to you. Your questions may be answered here, 9 71 90 79 40 56 55 12 55 5 2 40 38</span> </em> </strong>
</p><p class="p1">
  <strong> <em> <span class="s1">Hope this shuts you up - H</span></em></strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"> Xisuma looked at the randomness of numbers, they seemed to be coordinates but there were to many of them for that.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He sat quietly, quiet enough that Tango and Impulse looked his way wondering if he found something.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango slowly walked behind the Admin looking over his shoulder to read the message.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“X? What should we do?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">X remained quiet calculating what could go wrong. He sat there pondering, looking over the numbers.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Nothing made sense.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“X, buddy, you ok?” Impulse asked also coming over to read the message and comfort his friend.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yeah, I’m fine.” He looked between the two giving them room to think over the message. “Do either of you know what the numbers could mean?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Replies of no came from both of them.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">The numbers must correlate to something, but what. Language can easily be broken down but this language was too garbled. Too random.</span> </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“We gotta figure this out.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***<br/>
</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As soon as Joe saw Cleo he smiled. A jungle was around them, not the glaring white. It was beautiful and strange.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Cleo! Are you okay is everything alright?” He asked walking closer to her. Electricity ran through him, making him jump back from Cleo.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Her smile faltered and she held her sword tighter, “Joe why are you here?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Well, I’m unsure of that as well but-“</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You’ve been gone for a while now so why are you here? And why would you come back after so long?” She asked, sword now pointed at his throat.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“What? No, Cleo I mean no malintent. I don’t know what happened, but I’ve been stuck in a dungeon and-“</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Please, Joe this is serious, everything went down hill cause of you going missing And you show up, unscathed, from a dungeon?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I-I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happened but please believe me Cleo, I-“ he stepped closer to her again. The shock was there but he ignored the pain and moved closer toward his friend. Trying to tell her.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She reacted quickly, swinging directly at his arm. His body shot with more pain, mind on the cusp of losing consciousness. A large gash poured blood down his left arm</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Cleo cupped her mouth, realizing what she had done.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Cleo please, it’s me.” He grasped at his arm as he stepped a little bit closer.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She looked at him, at his bleeding arm, not knowing whether this was the real Joe or something else.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I’m sorry Joe, I don’t know what to believe at this point.” She dashed away.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He tried to go after her but the shock was adminstered at a higher volt and he fell to the floor.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He lay on the floor of the forest, which slowly desolved into the white glaring room. The figure loomed over him again.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You know Poet, your friend really doesn’t like you. To bad she didn’t listen. She could have saved you.” Their face gave an unsympathetic frown. “I’ll leave for now deary, have a nice time.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They walked off. And Joe lay on the floor unable to think of what exactly just happened.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Joes perspective is not during what happened last chapter or during when it’s X’s perspective. It’s supposed to be just relaying information about what has happened to Joe to you guys. Sorry if that or Joe’s second perspective was confusing in any way. I edited Joe’s perspective so it makes more sense then whatever I wrote earlier today. I now know I shouldn’t trust myself with writing a chapter in the middle of the night.<br/>Good grief.<br/>Also hope this makes more sense</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter Three - Silence can be Suffocating</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Numbers are filled. Joe has lost hope. Tango is Blissful, but happiness is fleeting.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">Numbers.</span> </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">Why numbers? Why was the location in numbers?</span> </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">He paced, thinking rapidly. Trying to piece all of this together.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">But his mind run blank.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s2">Whoever this is is obviously under the radar enough to take Joe so easily but a coded message didn’t seem like a well though out move to make. Why didn’t they give it out specifically?</span> </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s2">Ok. Rethink it. Since numbers are basic enough for whoever this is to use, they probably used a somewhat basic resource or programming with easy search or thought.</span></em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Ok getting somewhere.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">He stopped pacing. “What’s another word for code?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Typing came his right, “First thing to come up on a search is cipher.” Impulse stated.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Codex is another one off the top of my head. Like one of those little rings secret agents wear.” Tango said. “Wait. Did the person freaking use one of those little doo dads?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Don’t those go up to twenty five though?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">More typing toward his right.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">His train of thought wandered with the ring codex idea.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Wait I found something. It’s got multiple different numbers higher than twenty five.” Impulse turned around and said, “Give me the numbers.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Relaying the numbers was quick and getting the correct string of words seemed to come naturally toward Impulse and assistance from the other two helped as well.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“NW island. Northwest possibly.” Impulse swung his head back toward his friends. “See, I can do more than just shovel, Tango.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Regardless, man, what are we supposed to do with that information. Just waddle down over there and say, hey give our friend back ya twerp.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“What if it’s a trap?” He looked at them.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">X’s eyes moved quickly around the room trying to figure out the best course of action.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“How about we have False and you, Tango, go over there? Perfect amount of firepower to get out of if it were a trap.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Tango gave a thumbs up and started typing on his communicator.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">He didn’t like the glaring white nor did he like anything else.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">He had given up on telling the hermits what was going on after the third time the shadow came to ‘visit’ as they said.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">That time he had pleaded for them to act rationally. Although his hypocritical statement was blown easily into more of the fog of haze clouding his friends feelings and his mind.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Although there was a figurative fog in his head, his glasses, oddly enough, didn’t fog up.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">He was thankful for that at least. He didn’t have to clean them as many times as he usually did. Although they had cracked slightly in the corner.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">At this point in time he didn’t mind. He didn’twant to see anything else the figure cooked up. Much less his or his friends demise.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">As his mind raced he remembered that game, Demise. Friends fighting against friends. It was a game. He wanted that more than ever. For this all to be a horrible, horrible game.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">He hoped no one else fell in to play.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Air rushed around them as they left Etho’s base. The humid air gave both of them a sense of comfort.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Tango was the one to break the silence. “So heard ya got a magical gem up on your base.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Yeah, it’s a nice bit of color on the place.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Silence fell again, giving the two hermits time to think on what to do when they got to the island and what to say next.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">False fired a rocket, making her fly forward.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Ya know what, how bout a race?” She said as  Tango launched a rocket to catch up to her.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“I’ll take that. What does the winner get?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Let’s see.” And at that False fired off three rockets, boosting her toward the lone isle.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Tango double taked for a second before shooting fireworks to catch up.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">He tried to zip by her but she released another rocket.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">It went like this for a bit. With False giving him leeway to pass her but immediately snatching it up and throwing a bit of laughter to the wind. It gave them a window of forgetfulness, a sense of sheer bliss.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Finally landing on the island False pumped her fist, proclaiming her victory.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Were should we go, my good sir,” she tipped a fake hat toward Tango as he landed next to her.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Thoughts quickly went past Tango but the sole idea that made the most sense also wasn’t the best to do in this situation.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Let’s split up for now and search the island for anything weird.” False nodded at that and flew toward the left.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">And Tango took the right.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">The cool ocean breeze felt more relaxing than the humidity from earlier. He glided this way and that. Trying to get his mind in a somewhat stressless area. Of course his thoughts were ever persistent with what if’s but he breathed into the present for a second, trying his best to be an optimist in a pessimistic event.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">A buzz came from his communicator.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">&lt;<strong>FalseSymmetry</strong>&gt;: Found something over here. Seems to be a large hole.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">He doubled back toward the left were false had gone and easily found the very large and very dark hole.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“So....” False looked at Tango trying to gauge his expression.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Brave Knight False, shall we continue onward?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">False grinned, “Why but of course good Squire Tango. Onward to victory!” She dove.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Why am I the squire?” He dove down after her.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Would you prefer me to say you’re a page, Tango?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“No.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">They landed lightly at the bottom, both having a slight adrenaline rush.<br/>
Walking forward the usual cave flooring slowly changed to some sort of white, the walls doing the same. It wasn’t quite concrete or quartz. But a glaring mix of white.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Somehow it was illuminated making it hard to look directly at the color. Much less each other.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">The white opened up to a room. Not to big not to small.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">It was silent.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Void of noise.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Nothing.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">Nadda.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2">“Zip.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Good golly was this hard to write. Quarantine is making my brain a huge dumbass and correct grammar has just left that station. Regardless, hope y’all are doing good.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter Four - Thoughts can Destroy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A Drone is silenced and Doc’s mind is distant.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: suffocation, being knocked out and abduction</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango whirled around. Trying to find the voice or voices, he couldn’t quite pinpoint it.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Seems like the little Admin is nowhere to be seen. Oh, how unfortunate.” The voice resounded throughout the room. Sarcasm running thick like honey. “Although one of his little worker bees seems to have some magic.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The voice crept behind Tango, sending a chill down his spine.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">False opened her mouth, “What do you want from us?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“What I want from you, Queen of Hearts? Well I don’t really need you at the moment. But the Drone’s magic could suffice.” Another shiver went down both their spines, although Tango felt a slight brush on his neck.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Where’s Joe?” Tango said trying to find the disembodied voices origin again. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Oh? Concerned are we? Why, the Poet is doing fantastic. Although he’d be very shocked to find out you were reckless enough to come over here without the Admin.” The voice chuckled, giving the cacophony of noises a new form of discord.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Both Hermits moved their hands to their ears at that.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">”Oh, I’m sorry if I hurt your little ears, darlings.” The honey was slathered deeply into that line, oozing with sarcasm.<br/>
</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Now, dear Hermits, I’ll have to cut our time short. This was a wonderful chat, I’m sure, but it seems I have more pressing matters then some measly scouts.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">At that Tango felt something constricting his neck. He gagged and quickly coughed, trying to get air in before they fully crushed his windpipe.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">False went straight toward him trying her best to help but it was no use. There wasn’t anything there, only air.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She snatched her communicator as fast as possible, trying to type and help Tango as he clawed at his neck.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango’s vision was slowly going black, and his gulps for air were more persistant. Whatever was choking him slowly started crushing his neck more as his struggling continued.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">False tried to send the message, but an error message popped up instead.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The voice tsked at that. “Oh, sorry about that. Just wanted to make sure you had silenced your phone before the show started.” The voice laughed loudly. The laughter bounced on all sides echoing into the whiteness.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">False tried to pry whatever was holding Tango off of him, but it continued to constrict. Making the walls of hiswindpipe slowly meet.<br/>
</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango tried to suck in one last breath but a loud crack was heard instead, and pain shot through him quickly enough that it didn’t hurt and darkness overtook his sense, falling limp.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A buzz came from both of their communicators.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><strong>TangoTek</strong> was silenced to death by <strong>Hush</strong></span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">False looked at his limp body trying to process what happened before the voices said solemnly. “The poor Drone. Well it seems like your the last one left, Queen of Hearts. I suggest you leave before anything else happens. Hopefully the show was worth your time.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She picked up Tango, and ran out. Her thoughts ran amuck in her mind. She screamed at herself that she should have fought, she should have tried to find this Hush person better, but no. Her friend had died. She flew out the hole, and Tango’s body disintegrated into a puff of smoke.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">What if’s ran rampant in his brain.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">What if we don’t find him?</span> </em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">What if more people get abducted?</span> </em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">None of those questions helped.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They only helped his thoughts to scramble even more, tangling into a knot of emotions and disgust.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">Why can’t I figure it out?</span> </em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em><span class="s1">I’m supposed to figure this out. But I can’t even get my thoughts together. </span>My fucking emotions are disgusting.</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>I should be helping. But I’m not. I’m just laying in my own sorrow.</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>Why am I here not and helping?</em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He got up from his lying position on his bed and sped down to the nearest portal.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Rushing toward Xisuma’s base was rough on his lungs but he got there as quick as he could.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Walking out of the portal gave him view of a slew of towers. </span>He tried to find some sort of signage to guide him but there were none to help.</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Trying to run toward the closest and biggest tower was challenging but he arrived, unsure of what to do.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">At that a buzz came to his communicator.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><strong>TangoTek</strong> was silenced to death by <strong>Hush</strong>.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><em>Fuck</em>. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"> <em>No! No no no no no no!</em> </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"> His brain spiraled down trying to figure out what had happened to his friend, to preoccupied to notice a snapping of twigs to the right of him.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He looked at the tower, failing to see if X would station his office in there or not.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Someone pushed the non cyborg side of his head forcefully into the side of the building. And his world grew black. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter Five - Words can Build</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hugs. Lots of Hugs.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: electrocution</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The humidity turned to heat. The heat turned to the mild temperature of the plains where the toon towers were.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was peaceful as the sun went down.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Sticky tear tracks were soon flooded with fresh tears as he ran to his friend’s bed as quickly as possible.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Another pair of footsteps were behind him, just as frantic.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As both of them came to the doorway, they saw their friend opening his eyes wide, gulping in air and grabbing at his neck.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Both friends ran straight toward him, embracing in a hug.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They sat like that, hugging and crying. All three men to happy to see that the other’s were all right.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango smiled slightly and then his face fell again. He took himself out of the hug.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Wait. Is False ok?” His voice was raspy and worry coated it like butter.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“False hasn’t responded to anything in chat, Tango.” Impulse said, face streaked with tears.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango looked at Zedaph, who’s curly hair was in a complete mess. Zedaph nodded slowly.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango opened his mouth but, outside of his control, closed it. To the other two it seemed as if he had dismissed a thought that wasn’t important.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango’s eyes widened, he again tried to tell them the slight conversation that he had heard between the person with multiple voices and False but again he was shut down by an outside force. This time his mouth hadn’t moved at all.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He grabbed his communicator from his pocket, fumbling with it.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He tried to type what he wanted to say and it worked, but trying to send it to the chat was led with an error message.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Your right.” His mouth said, while all of Tango’s mind freaked out.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A three simultaneous buzzes were heard at that.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>xisumavoid</strong>&gt; False is ok! Her communicator isn’t working. Is Tango alright?</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Typing came from both of Tango’s friends.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>ZedaphPlays</strong>&gt; He’s good X </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>impulseSV</strong>&gt; His voice is a little rough but he’s alright.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Multiple messages popped up from everyone, happy to know the little recon team was ok.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But Tango wasn’t ok. His voice wasn’t his own anymore.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was silent toward it all as tears rolled down his face.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was awake, unable to close his eyes without seeing one of his friends. His body immediately felt a shock that wasn’t even administered and he hated it.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The figure hadn’t come back that day, if it was day.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He wasn’t to sure about the time.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Sure the figure had given him basic food but it was random, sporadic times and emphasized with malice.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He wasn’t to sure if the malice was put on himself or toward the bowl of mashed potatoes the figure always gave him. Perhaps the figure wasn’t to fond of potatoes mashed in this way or perhaps the figure would prefer to mash him in a meat grinder.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Both thoughts could be possible at this point and that would be fine. Well not necessarily for him but he knew that the figure had some extent of human goodness not to flatten him like a pancake or they could just have very good self control.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Again he didn’t know.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He rambled in his head. Trying to collect the random, sporadic thoughts as quickly as possible.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Oh Poet! Look who I found wandering in the wood.” At that the figure dropped a body but six blocks away from him and snapped a finger. Joe looked toward the body seeing a metal shine on the part that was facing him.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“The little Goat seemed lost. Hope you enjoy each other’s company.” At that the figure left giggling slightly.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Joe stood up trying to look at the body withoutgetting shocked.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Doc?” His body spasmed involuntarily but he had stopped focusing on that but instead on his friend.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Joe nudged Doc. Making sure not to cross the invisible line.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Doc mumbled incoherently at the first nudge. Then slowly opened his bleary eyes at the second and looked at Joe. Both of them smiled, sense of relief flooding both of them.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Joe, you’re alright.” Doc’s voice was just barely a whisper.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Joe’s face fell a bit at that, Doc noticed through his haziness immediately sitting up to look at Joe.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Joe?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">At that Joe shuddered, sniffling a bit, trying to get his emotions in check. But as soon as he looked back down at Doc’s worried face cried. Really truly cried for the first time since he’d been in here.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Doc quickly tried to go over to Joe, trying to give him a hug, but the small dome around him electrified his cyborg body.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Shit. Look Joe, it’s ok, everyone is looking for you and- and Cleo is worried sick and-“</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Joe lunged at Doc, giving him a hug regardless of the shocks that ran through his </span>body.</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“H-hey wait, no, Joe get back over there, your gonna hurt yourself even more.” Doc pried Joe’s hands off and pushed him back to his little dome as Joe wiped his face.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And for once, in the time that he had been in that white room, he felt somewhat happy. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I don’t know why but Zedaph’s skin looks like it would have curly hair. Regardless hope you liked the chapter.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter Six - The Mind can Echo</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Xisuma starts a meeting. Tango spirals.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: manipulation</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>xisumavoid</strong>&gt; Ok everyone I’d like you all to meet at the town asap. we’re gonna have a meeting</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">X sighed as the chat flowed with oks from everyone.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He and False had already gotten over to the shopping district beforehand and were glad for it because of the amount of Hermits coming through either one of the portals.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The crowd of friends filled up the space right near the steps to the town hall, some fidgeting anxiously, while others talked in hushed whispers.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">X spotted Tango with a blanket talking quietly with Impulse and Zed. Well, not necessarily talking, more so listening and spacing out with some comments here or there.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He coughed, trying to get everyone’s attention, and attention he got. Most conversations quieted down to almost nothing as he spoke, which was irregular for the group.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“So, as some of you have seen or heard, Joe is gone and there’s someone new called Hush.” X pulled at his fingers nervously </span>
  <span class="s1">as he tried to piece the best words together.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Today, we sent Tango and False over to the little island Northwest from here and, as I’m sure you all saw,” he paused slightly, trying to think as quickly as possible. “Tango was killed by Hush.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A murmur went through the crowd, most of which was just them relaying their worries, and most turned to look at Tango.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Hush also messed with False’s communication,and can probably do that to anyone.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">”It still doesn’t fucking work either.” False grumbled beside him, clearly pissed.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“They most definitely have at least one communicator , which means do not say anything specific in chat.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Variations of agreements went through the group as conversation outweighed quietness at this point.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Because of this,” Xisuma added, “we’re gonna be doing buddy system rules.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Some groans hear and there.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I understand we are all stir crazy at the moment, but please stay in groups. It will help immensely for me, and everyone, to know that everyone is accounted for.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A slight chant came from Grian “Sleepover, sleepover, sleepover!” The talking between people swelled greatly at that, and questions arose between everyone.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">X chuckled at the slight chaos of it all. All the voices cascading into the glob of friendship that they all shared.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">In that moment the bit of dread that was in his gut had left for the winter. Or more so the night.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango’s mind was rattling due to the loudness of the group. He didn’t like it. It was consuming him with to many thoughts.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">Shut up! Stop being so loud.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He didn’t voice these pleas for silence though. They just stayed, trapped in a cycle of thoughts and feelings that weren’t his.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Slowly he tumbled down the rabbit hole that had been dug for him to fall through.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He didn’t really fight it either. Sure he didn’t want to do whatever it was the voice in his head said but the chaos of noise just hurt his mind to much to think that maybe it wasn’t a good idea. </span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The voices outside of his head were just loud white noise now. And he couldn’t comprehend anything and it just made his brain hurt more.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">They wouldn’t even notice the difference probably if I were to just stop listening.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">Or saying anything.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">Or existing.<br/>
<br/>
</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><em>Wait no.</em> He tried to shake the thoughts away and tried to clear his head and think of positive things.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em><span class="s1">They would care. They came immediately when they saw that I had died. I</span> need to keep this thing from making me think stupidly.</em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">I wouldn’t know if they would remember me though. They sure didn’t remember Doc.</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His eyes widened and tried to look through the static crowd to find Doc. None of the loud noises came through the mouth of the cyborg.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">No! I need to tell them.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1"><strong>But</strong> <strike>I</strike> <strong>you can’t, Drone.</strong><br/>
<br/>
</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">No no no no no no-</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em></em>
  <span class="s1">Fuck.</span><br/>
<br/>

</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The static of voices from everyone crescendoed into the sort of ringing you get after an explosion but it was much worse then what he usually got after a Boomer job.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Each voice just made another bomb go and he felt a small trickle of blood pour down his left ear. He didn’t even react as he heard foot steps coming toward him.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“H̴e̷y̴ ̶T̵a̶n̴g̸o̵ ̴h̶o̵w̸ ̷a̵r̸e̷ ̷y̴o̸u̶ ̶h̶o̵l̶d̸i̶n̵g̸ ̷u̸p̶?” Static and ringing came from X’s helmet.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I-ugh, I’m good.” His mind spat it out, and he himself didn’t know if he willingly said it.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Xisuma’s eyebrows raised but he didn’t push it. Instead, he gave a slight head tilt as a comforting gesture and walked away toward Cleo.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">Tsk, seems like he doesn’t care little Drone.</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">No! He does care, you’re just-</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">Just what? Telling you the truth? Because I am. He doesn’t care Drone and if you want some peace and quiet you’re going to have to admit it.</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">But he does care. Why else would he be tirelessly looking for </span>
    <strong>
      <strike>
        <span class="s2">the Poet </span>
      </strike>
    </strong>
    <span class="s1">Joe?</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">He may want to make sure that something that isn’t the Poet is safe.</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">What do you mean?</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A pause. And then a chuckle. The loud, roaring chuckle of a thousand things at once.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">It’s simple really, he wants to make sure you and the Poet’s magic is safe. And thusly wants to keep your bodies safe.</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">Wh-what.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <strong>
      <span class="s1">He doesn’t care Drone. Get it through your skull. He didn’t want to be your friend to begin with. He wants your power.</span>
    </strong>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">And so do you.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <span class="s1"><em>I have my intentions</em> and they’re only to help you.</span>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">You killed me!</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">Oh hush darling, I am cruel but would you really believe, little old me would do such a thing?</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">But. . . You. .did.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">
      <b>Did I?</b>
    </span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango searched his memory but all that came up was-</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">No.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His mind reshaped.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">NO.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His mentality was dragged to the floor, in a heated battle with his emotions.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">NO!</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">Oh, the Drone wants to argue again. The facts are right here in your mind. And wouldn’t you love to not hear all this disgusting noise.</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He refocused on the outside world and it was filled with the excruciating ringing, the static, the noise.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">I don’t want it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">So how about you quiet down now.</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The voices melded together making a slightly less gruesome noise.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And those were the last things he heard in his head before the world turned upside down and he wasn’t in control. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>One down. Twenty-two to go.</p><p>Joe chapter is next don’t worry<br/>&gt;:3</p><p>Also new format!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter Seven - Dreams can Haunt</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Joe and Doc worry. And memories are shared.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Nightmares/mentions of what has happened to Joe</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So.” Doc sat up and looked at him, gauging the fragility of the topic. “Do you wanna talk about what’s happened or?”</p><p> </p><p>“Not really no.”</p><p> </p><p>Doc nodded. </p><p> </p><p>A silence fell over them.</p><p> </p><p>“You know what. Can we just talk? About something other than this? Cause I’ve been here for who know’s how long without someone to talk to and I’m kinda glad it’s you, but at the same time it’s like-“ He trailed off. </p><p> </p><p>“Have you slept at all?”</p><p> </p><p>Joe didn’t answer that and continued staring at the ceiling. </p><p> </p><p>Doc laid back down. “Joe, you should really get some sleep.”</p><p> </p><p>Joe turned his head toward Doc and sighed. “Ok, fine. But please, Doc, wake me up if they come, please.” Joe said, worry visible on his face. </p><p> </p><p>“I will, Joe, don’t worry. Now get some sleep please.”</p><p> </p><p>Joe tried to snuggle as best he could on the hard floor. His eyes drooped as the tiredness finally hit him and he easily fell into slumber. </p><p> </p><p>Doc smiled gently. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> At least I’m good at something.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>He started humming a tune, although he wasn’t quite sure what it was from exactly.</p><p> </p><p>He looked about the room for anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> No windows, no doors, no way out.  </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>His humming continued as he took his eyes away from the walls and instead to his hands, twiddling with his fingers and with his coat. </p><p> </p><p>A long bit of string hung from one of his torn sleeves and he tried to pull it out, but more string came. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Dumme Schnur.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>He wrapped it around his finger and tried to pull again but no use. Doc left it be and continued looking at the ceiling as Joe had done. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> What did Hush do to Joe? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Pondering this question was a constant in his mind and regardless of the other thoughts in his head that statement just kept cycling. Over and over.</p><p> </p><p>As the question continued daunting him he became slightly more pissed. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> This piece of crap did something to Joe. Something bad to Joe. But what? And why? And- and. . . </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Doc didn’t finish that thought as he heard a noise.</p><p> </p><p>Soft snores came from the other man in the room and his sleep seemed peaceful. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Thank goodness. </em>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>His sleep was not peaceful. The torments of memories that weren’t his floated throughout the dream. </p><p> </p><p>Blood. Betrayal. Cleo. Xisuma. Bdubs. All of the hermits. Yelling at him. He didn’t like it. </p><p> </p><p>Who would?</p><p> </p><p>Then Doc was there. On the white floor. Unconscious. Or dead.</p><p> </p><p>He shot up. Breathing heavily and scrambling for anything, for anyone. But he wasn’t in that white room that he had seen. </p><p> </p><p>He was in his bed.</p><p> </p><p>A soft meow came to his right. </p><p> </p><p>“Good morning to you too, Jellie.” Scar said, groggily.</p><p> </p><p>The cat leapt up to him. Nuzzling and mewing for her to be fed. </p><p> </p><p>He yawned and stretched. ”Yea, yea, yea. I know, don’t you worry.” He stroked her gently and sat up. “Time to get some food then.” Picking Jellie up, Scar went down for breakfast. </p><p> </p><p>The sun hadn’t even risen yet and his eyes still shone undertones of sleep. But he continued into the morning, slowly trying to forget the dream.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Joe awoke with a start. He looked toward the perpetrator who woke him up, but found that his glasses had fallen off giving him a blurry view of Doc. </p><p> </p><p>“Joe. Hey, dude, um I think you should probably wake up.”</p><p> </p><p>“Why?” Joe grumbled and rolled over to try and distance himself from Doc. </p><p> </p><p>“Cause it’s been at least eight hours. You shouldn’t sleep to long, Joe.”</p><p> </p><p>“Fine.”</p><p> </p><p>He fumbled to try and find his glasses, which thankfully Doc had snatched off of him after he had fallen asleep. “Thank you.” </p><p> </p><p>Joe’s eyes were still bleary from sleep but he saw a smile come from Doc. </p><p> </p><p>“No problem. How do you feel?”</p><p> </p><p>Energy seemed to course more in his veins then before. And the headache that he had ignored was gone. </p><p> </p><p>“I feel. . . A lot better.” Joe smiled back at the cyborg.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, well, well, hello little Goat and Poet. I’m so glad to see you both didn’t do anything stupid while I was gone.” The abomination of a voice rang through Joe’s tired head. “Perhaps I’ll reward you two for it.” The figures head tilted, a grin spread from ear to ear. And then a chuckle. </p><p> </p><p>“Hopefully you’ll be easier than that Drone.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>The adrenaline that had been coursing through his veins faded to a complete to a stop and his energy was depleted exponentially. </p><p> </p><p>Finishing up builds did that to him. </p><p> </p><p>The rush of making the smallest details grand took a toll and the toll was in need of payment right now. </p><p> </p><p>He stumbled to bed. And used the last of his energy as his mind shut off and he slept. </p><p> </p><p>But more nightmares came. </p><p> </p><p>Darkness consumed him and he didn't know what to do.</p><p> </p><p>Then voices were heard. Rattling his mind with choices and thoughts that weren’t his own or whoever’s memories he had come into. And a chant echoed throughout. </p><p> </p><p>
  <b> <em>Obey.</em> </b>
</p><p> </p><p>The toll was not met that night. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>An early chapter with Scar and some Jellie. Yay!<br/>Hope y’all enjoyed!</p><p>(As per usual if this doesn’t make sense, pls tell me, cause midnight author me makes no sense sometimes.)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter Eight - The Mind can’t Sleep</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Cub checks on Scar and Joe decides.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Nightmares, panic attack and blood</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Sleep deprivation clung to him like a sloth. And like a sloth he was slow that day. The sun a was blazing which just added toward his reasons to continue to be lethargic. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Preparations to continue with his base were in order but every blink sent him into the glimpses of memories he had seen the night before. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was glad that he, at least, didn’t have the brunt of the memory nightmares, but it still stung. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In this state, redstone circuitry had left his mind all together as worse thoughts plagued him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And the crystals didn’t help either. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I should get Scar over here to fix that. Hopefully soon. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t like he didn’t want to ask Scar right away. He did. He just didn’t want to bother anyone, much less Scar. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span><em>Ok, you know what</em>. Cub thought, absolutely done with his indecisiveness and the heat. <em>I’ll just go by myself.</em></span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And so he did, as any sleep deprived person would, through the Nether and straight to the magnificent village that his friend had made. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cub’s eyes swept about the village, looking for the wizard man. No sign of movement. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>
    <em>Weird. It’s past noon so he should be awake by now.</em>
  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Walking toward Larry, Cub couldn’t hear anything from the large snail. He climbed the ladders and through the door looking for a sign of his friend. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thankful that sign came from above. Well, not like space or heaven or whatever otherworldly thing you might believe. But instead he heard muffled whispers and sniffling coming from upstairs. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cub sighed deeply, thankful that Hush hadn’t gotten to Scar yet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He climbed halfway up the ladder before politely knocking on the wall. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Um, hey Scar, it’s me. Is it alright if I come in?” The sniffling stopped. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yea.” Scar’s voice was quiet and he hiccuped. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cub climbed the rest of the way up and turned to see his friend, curled up in a ball on his bed with Jellie. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Scar looked up and Cub saw his tired and no longer crying eyes staring at him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you ok?” He walked up to the bed and sat precariously on the side. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Scar just shook his head as he stroked the sleeping cat. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nightmares?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Scar nodded and tears slid down again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, it’s ok. I’m here.” He smiled and tears traced down his face too. “Come here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cub opened his arms as an invitation and Scar  accepted it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They were like that for who knows how long until Cub could hear a slight snore coming from the other man. He yawned and lay Scar back on his bed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
Not wanting to go all the way back to his base Cub decided to sleep on the little chair to the side of Scar’s bedroom. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And although the memories loomed, he finally had a peaceful sleep. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well I sure hope you don’t drone on you motherfu-“ Doc yelped as the figure grabbed at his cloak and pulled him up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not so fast little Goat. We don’t want an accident just yet, now do we?” Hush grinned savagely. “Now sweet little nuisances, how shall we dispose of you today? One at a time or perhaps both. To many good choices.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hush let go of Doc, making sure to throw him right at the field. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He saw the shock and he felt it slightly as well, although it was more of a ghost of one. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know. How about the little magic user. You’ll be glad to know that I got another friend for you as well.” They snapped their fingers, making a cascade of electricity noises fizzle. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With it came another room illusion or reality. At this point Joe couldn’t tell and his brain continued to not work properly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span><em>I shouldn’t’ve gone to bed</em>. This thought became a mantra as he looked about the new room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A glass wall stood between Doc and him now, with Joe alone with Hush. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Now. What shall we do?” Hush paced about as Doc yelled at Joe and banged on the glass, trying to break it. “As so many have said before me, will it be the easy way, Poet, or the hard way?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I mean I myself would prefer the easy way but I’m sure regardless of what I say it’s just gonna end with the hard way.” Joe spat, fury and tiredness clouding his better judgment.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh please. The hard way involves your friend. While the easy way only involves this one question and the right answer.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Doc tried to yell at Joe not to talk to Hush, but the glass muffled him significantly. “What is the question?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Its more so a request. Join me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, that-“</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They chuckled, cutting him off. “Wrong choice. Retrace you’re steps or someone is gonna pay for it.” At that Joe ears filled with electricity popping and shocking Doc, stopping his pounding. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I-I ugh. I-“</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hurry up, think!</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hush teleported on the other side of the wall and holding a familiar looking trident. Doc didn’t have time to react as they threw it toward his back and the tips went through him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Blood came through three holes on his friend’s chest and he spluttered bits of the red liquid. The light left his eyes and he wished he had chosen sooner. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Joe’s eyes welled with tears as he turned to face the figure. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why what darling? He’ll be back in time to see you again, so what does it matter?” Hush bent down to Joe’s height and spoke softly, as softly as a pack of animals could at least. “Now it’s time for your little makeover, because you decided to take so long.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They patted his head and went about doing what they had set out to do originally. Claiming yet another pawn and moving the other toward the end of the board. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>&lt;<strong>BdoubleO100</strong>&gt;: X, Doc’s gone</span>
</p><p>
  <span>&lt;<strong>BdoubleO100</strong>&gt;: like gone gone</span>
</p><p>
  <span>&lt;<strong>xisumavoid</strong>&gt;: fuck</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His communicator buzzed as he found his eyes opening. His neck hurt from the wooden chair but he felt as well rested as he could. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Scar was still sleeping soundly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s good. </span>
  </em>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Another will join, but twenty-two still remain.</p><p>Hope y’all enjoyed! Sorry for the angst but Cub’s here now so yea :v</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter Nine - Dreams can’t Come True</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Knight comes. The Drone observes. Scar is less tired.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: lots of bad thoughts in general, panic attack and implied torture</p><p>(pls tell me if there is anything else)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Some form of light filled his vision, not necessarily vision but more so closed eyes.<br/><br/></span>
</p><p>
  <span>His eyes blinked open and he was greeted with the sky. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A blue sky.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was confused to say the least. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His body felt weak as he sat up. But his energy felt replenished almost. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Looking about only led him to be more confused. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was situated on a little island. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the middle of the sea. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What is happening,” he said out loud looking about the sky for some sign of anyone flying. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A rumble from his stomach answered him instead of a voice from a Hermit. He went toward the chests that he had spotted in the other end of the isle and found a plethora of boats and berries for which he was thankful.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Although he was unsure as to why there were berries. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A buzz came from his communicator as he gingerly put a berry in his mouth. He fumbled with it and looked to see who had messaged. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>&lt;</span>
  <span>
    <b>cubfan135</b>
  </span>
  <span>&gt;: Wels?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>&lt;</span>
  <span>
    <b>Welsknight</b>
  </span>
  <span>&gt;: o/</span>
</p><p>
  <span>&lt;</span>
  <span>
    <b>FalseSymmetry</b>
  </span>
  <span>&gt;: Wels! You’re back!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A hellos and questions ensued in the chat and he was easily overwhelmed with it all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Many of the questions were about why he was back, and to be frank he wasn’t quite sure. All he remembered was season 6, something weird happening and then falling asleep. He didn’t say anything about the weird event before he slept but that was mainly due to the fact that he forgot. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Although he was sure of a couple things about it. Someone had done something to him and then his. . his head was weird and then he fell asleep.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>
    <em>And they left me in that season.</em>
  </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>
    <em>Alone.</em>
  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He shook the thoughts away, preferring instead to ask for some help and a personal explanation from X. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>
    <em>He’s probably just gonna dodge the questions though. </em>
  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A firework sound rang and he turned to see a very bee like humanoid although the insectoid features seemed more artificial and at our like. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wels! Oh, it’s so good to see you again, buddy!” A very familiar British voice was heard through the bee head and sounded very radio like. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Xisuma?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The one and only. I’ve gotten some new garbs as you can see, so I am extremely sorry if I scared ya.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s alright.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>An awkward silence fell upon them, until it was broken by X.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, so the server has been weird lately. Joe and Doc are missing due to this-“ his helmet bleeped and he continued. “-called Hush.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wels head run a hundred miles a minute as X continued, listening but at the same time not. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>
    <em>Hush. I’ve heard that name before but where?</em>
  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He clawed at his mind, trying to get back in control but he couldn’t. And the more he fought, the more he felt himself slipping further. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The onslaught of orders and intrusive thoughts  continued in a torrent of a storm. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And every second that he was trapped in that storm he became less aware of himself as Tango and started becoming the puppet that Hush wanted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A grateful puppet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>An obedient puppet. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>A silent puppet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A puppeteer. That’s what they were. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Who that Hush character was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A puppeteer. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But they weren’t the entertainment kind. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They seized control and worked through the mind. Recircuiting it to their whim.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>He had finally settled down after working on his house when this thought occurred. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He snuggled further into the covers of his bed trying to block out the quite loud night noises outside. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They hurt and killed. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And they helped. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His eyes widened. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span><em>No</em>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>
    <em>They helped silence those horrible noises. And they brought me peace. </em>
  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>
    <em>No they didn’t. They hurt me. They hurt my friends. </em>
  </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>And what did you do? </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <span>
    <em>I-</em>
  </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <strong><em>You didn’t help them.</em> </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>You promised them that you would get them out of there and what did you do?</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>
    <em>I-I . . . ran. </em>
  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Tears sprung on his eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>You ran. </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>The knight in shining armor ran and for what? A little time to play the captured by sleeping for almost a year. </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>
    <em><strong>Coward</strong>. </em>
  </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A loud yawn came from Scar as he awoke. He rubbed his bleary eyes and looked about the room for Jellie. Instead of his beloved cat though he saw a sleeping Cub on the very uncomfortable chair. </span>
</p><p> </p><p><span>The stillness of the scene was surreal and for once Cub looked less stressed. </span><br/><br/>And then his features changed and he gritted his teeth until he awoke with a gasp and continued to try and gulp down air as quickly as possible.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Scar rushed over to him and grabbed his hand gently. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, hey, hey, Cub! Listen to my voice and try to breath with me, okay?” Cub didn’t seem to listen. “Okay, in for four, hold for seven and then out for eight. See?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Scar placed Cub’s hand over his chest and breathed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cub slowly tried to keep the same breathing tempo as Scar. Matching breathes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The adrenaline rush went out of both of them quickly as they each calmed down. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What happened in the dream?” Scar asked quietly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It was me as Tango when Hush killed him. I couldn’t breath.” Cub looked up from his hands toward Scar. “Thank you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Scar smiled, “No, thank you. You didn’t have too make sure I slept.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I mean X did say use the Buddy System, did he not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yea, I guess he did.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They chuckled and hugged briefly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They stayed in the room for a bit longer, talking about what had happened in their dreams recently and tried to piece together the weird memories. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yes I did that. I brought Wels into the mix. </p><p>Before I watched his video I did want something like the beginning to happen in here, but I decided to just have him wake up in s7 instead of s6 lol</p><p>Pls do ask questions if you are confused or just as questions if you aren’t either way.</p><p>Regardless hope y’all enjoyed :3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 10 - Worry can Corrode</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Knight and the Goat worry.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: lots of debilitating thoughts and use of sewing needles on skin in a torture like way.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was helpless.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was always helpless.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He could never seem to be there.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And he cared but for what?</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">For his friends to get hurt and killed because of his stupidity. His choices.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He could have helped.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But he couldn’t, he didn’t. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was trapped. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And he could see everything that was happening to Joe. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He built. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">That was all he could do without his ears ringing. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His thoughts were bouncing off the walls, half of them for Hush and the other half panicking. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But he continued to build trying to get the interior of his base to his liking and trying his best not to think about what was going on the server. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But his thoughts always took a one-eighty back to Hush, the problem of everything.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Of why he was like this, why his friends were gone, why he had slept for so long. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Alone. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">In a void of black. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And of all the things he could have done, he had left his friends. And now he had to face the consequences, with Hush rounding up Hermit after Hermit, slaughtering some and torturing all before the very likely demise of the server. With Hush on a throne and everyone else without their thoughts and feelings. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And freedom. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><br/>
He had wanted freedom. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His friends had wanted freedom. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And here he was free and hearing a voice of dread in his head, wanting him to let go and forget and feel better by joining Hush.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He wanted that too, to be less guilty about his actions, but if he were to side with Hush then his guilt would have eaten at him quick enoughto kill him. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Hush had situated Joe on a chair with binding wrapped about him. His eyes spilled tears due to something. He wasn’t to sure. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Nothing had happened yet. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And then they procured a needle with some dark material hanging from it precariously. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Twirling it they spoke something to Joe, although he couldn’t here it from behind the glass. All he could hear was the guttural rasps of voices that was Hush. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They stopped spinning the needle and gentle cupped Joe’s chin. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The needle was brought down toward Joe’s mouth and pierced his skin and they continued like that, slowly sewing Joe’s lips together. Yelps could be heard from Joe but Doc had stopped looking at it. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was falling again, into the pit of anxiety and doubt he had dug up throughout this week. His brain stopped processing the moment. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Wind swept through him as he flew. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The cold breeze felt wonderful and he was glad he wasn’t wearing his armor. He was already hot from the horrible sleep he had so flying in his pajamas felt great.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He flew about in the night air. Taking in as many cold breathes as he could and he drowned out the the loud white noise. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He gently started singing a tune from somewhere. But his other thoughts drowned out the tunes reasoning. Although if you were to be listening it would resemble a very rousing rebellious anthem of sorts. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He flew back toward his base as the sun rose. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The sky went from the dark night to beautiful pastels and then to the color of his eyes. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It calmed him, seeing the sun painting the sky with the wonderful array, and as he banked toward his front door his thoughts resumed to the loud uproar of fear. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is a short one due to the fact that I’m starting finals this week. I will still update on Friday but expect more updates in the coming weeks due to summer break.</p><p>Pls do ask questions if you are confused or just ask questions if you aren’t, either way.</p><p>Hope you enjoyed :3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 11 - The Stars can Shine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Both Xisuma and Cleo need to sleep.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW:Slight? panic attack, mention of memory loss</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The stars shone with more dazzling features at this time of night and the humidity in the jungle gave the hermits living there a sense of comfort, as if it were a summer night out camping. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But he wasn’t snuggled up in bed or looking at the stars, no. He of course was awake and feeling more and more like the fancy of sleep would do him well.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Typing was all you could hear front the room with which he was in, followed by soft sighs and some choice words.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His helmet was off which made his breathing labored greatly. He didn’t mind though. He just needed to think. Mainly about how Hush had even taken Doc in the first place. He had been at the meeting so he would have only been gone for, what two days? Maybe one if it was recent.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He skimmed his mind for any dregs of memories that he had of Doc after the meeting. And there was nothing, no Doc at all.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He racked through his brain trying to remember the last time he’d heard from the German, but the only thing to be found was when Doc and Bdubs went to meet up with Cleo. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He typed in the search bar and scrolled through the logs.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Doc’s last message was sent-</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Three days ago?! Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.” He sprung up on his chair and paced about, thoughts wild and in a flurry of harsh colors.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>
    <span class="s1">Did he even attend the meeting?</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Looking through the logs only confirmed it, though finding this information while half asleep only heightened his stress and anxiousness further.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He stood up and began pacing near his computer, pondering and a thought struck him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He didn’t even notice that Doc was gone during the meeting, and that worked him up greatly.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He shaked, trying to continue to pace. His heart beat ran a mile a minute and his breathing quickened with it, his lungs trying their best to get oxygen. He started coughing feverishly, his mind trying to give him a way to breath properly. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But he continued to panic.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He almost leaped toward his chair to grab at his helmet. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Putting it back on allowed his breathing to slow down greatly, although his heart beat was still rapid, but less so,  for which he was very thankful for.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He scolded himself for it and continued on throughout the night, his eyes became tired and he yawned frequently. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">After meticulously looking for anything in the code, a quiet knock rang through the room and he swung his head toward the culprit. A tall blonde man stood at the door, worry coating his features, and his red eyes shone like cat eyes in the dark.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Xisuma, why are you still up?” Tango walked toward him looking very groggy.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Sorry, I was just trying to find out what happened to him, I mean I understand that sleep is important and all that, but we have two friends out there. Alone. So I’ve been looking through the logs and such and I know we’ve looked but there could be something that Hush missed and-“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Xisuma you’re rambling again.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Sorry, sorry. I’m just worried for them.” Tango nodded, a different emotion settled in his eyes. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“X, you’re worse then Zed! Go to bed, we can finish up in the morning, ok?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Xisuma smiled slightly and yawned loudly</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Fine”, He rolled his eyes and stretched. “I’ll go to bed. But, you have to wake me up, ok?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Alright, alright, I will. Now go to sleep.” X walked with him to his room and hugged the other man goodnight, closing the door and finally sleeping. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">If X had left the door open he would have saw the tall figure walk back, not to the guest bedroom that Impulse and him shared now, but instead back toward’s the office.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She was fine.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Well, fine enough to not worry and not bite her almost nonexistent fingernails.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She assumed that the nail biting had been a habit of hers before she became apart of the undead, but the part of her brain that had held the memory information had long since rotted.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She didn’t mind though, so long as the rest of her brain continued to remember her time with the hermits. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Although she was seriously thinking of having it rot enough to forget this present time after the ordeal stoppped.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Right now though, the ordeal was continuing.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">At this point in time she was situated in Stress’s house, picking at the food that she had made for breakfast.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You alright there, love?” Stress sat down at the table, bowl of cereal in hand.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired and done with all of this.” Cleo responded, putting some beans on her toast and nibbling at it. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Then go take a nap, False and Iskall won’t be awake for another couple hours so you won’t miss anything.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yea no, I know. The only thing is is that once I wake up I can’t take a nap for the life of me.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Well then go to bed at a reasonable time.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The comments stopped and they ate their breakfasts in silence. After finishing, turned toward her friend, a sympathetic smile studded her face and she had her arms out slightly as an invitation. With which Cleo happily accepted, melting slightly at the embrace.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s ok.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Here’s a chapter in the middle of the week cause I’m v tired of school, so instead of doing that I did this.</p><p>Pls do ask questions if you are confused or just ask questions if you aren’t, either way.</p><p>Anywho I really hope y’all like this :3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 12 - Rest can be Forgotten</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Worries circulate between them all. And one cracks.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: mentions of what happened last chapter and blood</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Sunshine shimmered through the small window, hitting his face directly. He grumbled unhappily and turned to the other side trying to get as much sleep as possible. As soon as his mind melted back into the sandman’s land a normally very energetic voice awoke him.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Mornin’ Impy.” He opened his eyes slightly to see a pair of red eyes staring back. The body with which the eyes were attached was sitting criss cross on the other bed across the room and was drumming his fingers. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Mornin. . . What time is it?” He stretched his body out and blinked his eyes to adjust to the lighting. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango smirked thoughtfully, “It’s like ten something in the morning, I don’t know.” He slumped out of bed, in desperate need of food and a cup of coffee. “I made pancakes as well.” Tango continued as Impulse quickly got out of his pajamas.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He walked with Tango to the kitchen, eyes too bleary for him to concentrate on anything in his brain and a slight headache sprung as well. Thankfully the sweet aroma of pancakes went through his tiredness.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Is X awake or?” He looked about the kitchen for a plate, checking cabinet’s for plates as he spoke. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango sat down at the island. “Third cupboard to the right.” He pointed and continued. “I caught him last night still working, worrying about Joe and Doc and stuff.”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Poor guy, must be exhausted.” The plate clanged as Impulse placed it on the counter, putting four of the circles on it. “Did you get any sleep?”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He sat down to the right of Tango and started dousing his pancakes with syrup.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yeah, no I did.” He looked at the other one with a raised eyebrow, trying to telepathically tell him to tell the truth. The other however just stared at the table, silent. Resolute in his statement.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">After chatting some more and cleaning up after themselves, Tango went over to wake X while Impulse went about looking through logs and code. Soon enough, a very tired looking Xisuma came in very flustered at Tango.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Those aren’t pancakes, I’m sorry but they’re not.” He deeply drank his tea, and waved at Impulse.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Tango rolled his eyes and sat at his desk, spinning in the chair. “Ok, I get it. Pancakes don’t look like that where you’re from but I’m sorry that my pancake making skills are amazing.”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Don’t worry, X, Zed agrees with you.” Impulse said still fixating on the screen. All the while thinking about the weirdness of diversity in foods.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yeah, I know Impulse. Us Brits gotta stick together. Regardless how are the logs looking?”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“They seem alright, I don’t know bout the code though. Something feels off about it.”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I’ll look into that.” X sat at his desk, holding his tea in cupped hands. “Tango?”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He hummed a reply, not really focusing on anything in the room.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Could you get me a plate actually, I’m very hungry.”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Oh so now you appreciate the pancakes, wow ok X.” He got up, his face smiling although it seemed slightly forced to Impulse.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As he left, Impulse turned to Xisuma.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Hey, X, does it seem like Tango’s spacing out more to you or?”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I don’t think he got much sleep last night.” Impulse nodded. “I mean I’m not too sure what time I finally got to sleep, but if he was up at the ungodly hours I was I’m sure he’s still tired.”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yeah, it’s just-“ Impulse trailed off, he himself spacing out. “Nevermind.”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The whispers cascaded around him. Filling the space in his mind with to many horrible musings. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He hadn’t slept at all and he wasn’t planning on it. His minds captor didn’t want him to, they wanted him to stay awake, they wanted him to observe the foolhardy plights of the others. To make sure that they didn’t get the information that they needed to find the two fools that Hush had saved from the Admin.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <em>
    <strike>
      <span class="s2">Not saved. X isn’t a bad person.</span>
    </strike>
  </em>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And he obeyed easily, so easily, to easily and he hated how quickly his mind had broke.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Hush had taken the pieces that he hated and constructed an amalgamation for their whims. Glueing the jagged and cracked pieces together from the vase that was his mind and leaving the whole ones to get crushed under their toe. He tried to believe that the more broken pieces were small compared to the unbroken. And yet the vase that Hush had constructed seemed bigger than his original one.</span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Did this mean he was a bad person? That because of his larger amount of broken and jagged pieces that his entire world flipped upside down and he realized how disgustingly bad he was. Or had been. Or is. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His resolve was that his horrible behavior and attitude far outweighed everything he thought was good about himself.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And it did, it outweighed it so much and he wanted to cry, to hug someone, to do something other than be controlled.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But he did what he was told. He had put on the guise of his old self, or himself, the person who thought in black and whites and believed himself to be one who was apart of the “light side”.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And they believed him to be ok.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Or as ok as he normally was.</span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Even when he looked at himself in the mirror that morning, he looked exactly as he did before, aside from the dark purple ring around his neck and a small amount of scars near his Adam’s apple. The bit of purple seemed to be snaking slightly through this veins, although it was very subtle.<br/></span>
</p>
<p class="p1"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They had both been plagued with the same nightmare, although in separate perspectives.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His mind was hit harder then usual though. As if the vexesbarriers upon his mind wanted him to anguish in guilt and hurt.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He wasn’t quite sure as to why the vexes wanted him to hurt.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Possibly because him and Scar had somewhat revoked them this season. Or maybe they wanted to get his emotions to an all time high to wreak havoc upon the server. Again he wasn’t quite sure, but he wished that they’d just leave him and Scar alone.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He picked at the bits of egg that were on his plate, his thoughts weaving between his mind like a cat. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Little bits of his own memory dug up parts of the dream.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Screams and blood racked the nightmare like an icing on a cake. He barely heard Doc’s spluttering after the trident impaled him and the screams from </span>
  <strike>
    <span class="s2">himself </span>
  </strike>
  <span class="s1">Joe echoed as bits of string were pulled between his lips. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He faintly touched his face, making sure he too didn’t have the phantom like strings on his mouth.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Cub? You good there?” He came out of the daze, shaking his head a bit to concentrate. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Ugh, yea, sorry. Just. . . Trying to figure some thing out.” He wasn’t necessarily lying but he felt like he was sugarcoating the truth.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Scar seemed to believe he was lying as well.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Did- did you have a nightmare as well, Cub?” Scar gave a soft smile, and ate breakfast slowly if Cub did indeed wish to talk.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He took a small bite of food and looked back up. “Just the usual ones, nothing like the one you had.” He was lying through his teeth now.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He hadn’t told Scar anything about his own dream, not wanting to worry his already anxious friend. “Do you wanna talk about it?” Scar asked after a bit of silence.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Cub shook his head, still staring at his food.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“All right.”</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Silence gave way to the quiet mewlings of Jelly. “Aw, come here Jelly. I’ll give you some scratches!” Scar beckoned the cat and Cub smiled thoughtfully. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was glad that at least because of this he got to spend time with Scar again.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">After the end of season six they hadn’t gotten together in who knows how long and actually hanging out with his friend was amazing.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Especially with what was happening all around them.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hello yes I am back. I’m so sorry for delaying this but lotsa things have happened over the last two weeks that have robbed my creative attention.</p>
<p>Regardless hope y’all enjoyed this, lots of love and hugs &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 13 - The Mind can Masquerade</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Wels and Beef talk. The Poet is to tired to listen.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: slight mention of torture</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He slept the night before.</p><p> </p><p>Not well, but he slept nonetheless.</p><p> </p><p>A host of nightmares crawled across his mind, giving him whispers of worry. They sang loudly of his sickening defeat last season. </p><p> </p><p>But he was awake now. And the ringing continued and he barely registered it. He spaced out as he ate his breakfast and wasn’t present throughout the rest of the day.</p><p> </p><p>As of right now in the cool afternoon he was walking about the little bit of woods around his home. </p><p>He was glad for the bit of nature, it gave his brain a place to collapse and rest for once.</p><p> </p><p>And his mind most definitely needed rest.</p><p> </p><p>Of course, his brain had had a good long rest for roughly nine months. Why would it need more sleep? Why should he go back into that relaxed state just to be ripped into the reality that he could fail his friends again if he did.</p><p> </p><p>And sure, the relaxation was needed, but after worrying and wondering about what Hush would do next he didn’t want to relax.</p><p> </p><p>His senses had pricked up greatly and he was about ready to fight or run at any given moment.</p><p> </p><p>The leaves crinkled underneath him, allowing for some form of stimulus for his brain.</p><p> </p><p>“Wels? Wels are you out here?” A familiar and calm voice broke the sweet silence and he winced, ears ringing.</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, I’m here Beef.” He turned around trying to spot his friend.</p><p> </p><p>Rustling of leaves grew louder and as expected an apron clod man walked out of the bushes. Leaves stuck to his beard and clothes but he didn’t seem frazzled in the slightest. </p><p> </p><p>Beef gave Wels a smile, “Sorry for bothering you or anything, just wanted make sure you were ok and the like.”</p><p> </p><p>Wels gave a slight smile, his muscles became more relaxed although his tail swished anxiously back and forth. “Yeah, just- thinking.”</p><p> </p><p>“Good thinking or bad thinking?” Beef walked over to him, giving him a slight glance to tell him that they could continue to walk.</p><p> </p><p>Wels hesitated with the answer, looking anywhere but Beef’s eyes. He knew that the other wouldn’t push him to talk but that those piercing blue eyes would pick the story easy enough out of his broken soul.</p><p> </p><p>“Bad.” He mumbled, curling into himself.</p><p> </p><p>Beef gave a quizzical look and Wels continued to stare at the forest floor.</p><p> </p><p>“What did you say, Wels?” Beef continued being patient.</p><p> </p><p>“Bad.” Wels spoke a little bit louder, muscles tensing and ready to run at the drop of a hat.</p><p> </p><p>Beef nodded at the answer. “Do you wanna talk about it at all?”</p><p> </p><p>Wels gave the smallest of nods, hoping, praying that Beef didn’t notice. That Beef wouldn’t get looped into the mess of things. But at the same time he wished that Beef would help him get to the lighter end of this long and collapsing tunnel that was his life.</p><p> </p><p>Beef stopped and looked at Wels, his smile warm and caring.</p><p> </p><p>“Wels, buddy, you need to let your feelings up in the air, and uh set them free or something. The point is, is that you gotta talk about this. We can head on over to your house and you can talk on the way there or ya know we can talk at your house if it’s easier.”</p><p> </p><p>“Ok.” Wels nodded still quiet. </p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>The ceiling seemed to be his only company although his brain also heard the accompaniment of screams and crying. But he didn’t process anything.</p><p> </p><p>Only the ceiling.</p><p> </p><p>It’s glare was calming. So much more calming then the pain and fear of Hush.</p><p> </p><p>And he knew that behind the partition of glass was the monster. The monster now probably taking apart his friend bit by bit. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> I need to believe that he’ll be ok. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> He’s stronger than me.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> But what if he isn’t, what if he cracks under Hush’s pressure? </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Diamonds are created with pressure, and in this situation Doc is stronger. I just have to make sure that I can continue standing alongside him through that pressure. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>His mind did a dance of this, thoughts toe to toe. They skirted across his mind like swans.</p><p> </p><p>His eyes felt heavy as he stared off. Maybe his brain was finally done putting on the charade of everything is alright and I can stay awake for hours. </p><p> </p><p>He didn’t hear anything from the other side of the glass and dared not look away from the vast white expanse above him. What if hush had fiddled with his mind again and made it seem as if Doc’s torture was done, that he could look up and see a friend who wasn’t broken.</p><p> </p><p>All pottery is broken at somepoint though. Some people’s cracks are just less visible. And in this case his cracks had spread increasingly over the past who knows how long.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>He pursed his lips, trying his best to form complete sentences with his incomplete thoughts.</p><p> </p><p>They sat on one of the many sofas about Wels house. A large window accompiening them and the setting sun illuminated them with gold.</p><p> </p><p>“And. . . well because of everything that happened last season I’ve been having a lot of nightmares and it doesn’t help that Hush is here either.”</p><p> </p><p>“Wait so, it’s true then, that Hush was in season six?” Wels answered with a nod as he stared off into space. Memories from last season flitted to the forefront of his mind but he brushed it off, trying to keep his cool, although his body shook with anxiety.</p><p> </p><p>“They- they wanted us for something. I don’t remember what for but they-“ he grew quiet, “They. . .” He teared up, a sob escaping him.</p><p> </p><p>“Wels, it’s ok. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, buddy.” He gave Wels a soft smile. </p><p> </p><p>“Thank you.” Wels said, sniffling a bit.</p><p> </p><p>“Anytime.” Beef looked away from Wels and toward the sunset, the pinks and blues painting the sky in a whirl of dimming light.</p><p> </p><p>With the dim lighting Wels could see slight bags under the others eyes, either due to shadow or due to loss of sleep. </p><p> </p><p>He hoped that Beef wasn’t beating himself up about Doc going missing or Joe for that matter.</p><p> </p><p>They all seemed to have a demon to fight in this, whether it be inner or outer. And Wels wanted to makes sure that that battle wouldn’t be lost. He didn’t want another friend to fall prey to Hush.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Howdy y’all, just so you guys know I will be posting fic updates on my tumblr @0chillwhatsoever. So if you wanna get updated faster and/or see the other dumbassery that I do that’d be the place for you lol</p><p>Anywho hope y’all enjoyed, lotsa love &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 14 - The Body can Faint</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Stress wants to help. The Drone causes trouble.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: mentions of not eating</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Stressed. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She was very stressed. Although it would’ve been almost implied with her name.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She tried her best to be cheerful around her new housemates but of course optimism can so easily be swayed by the avalanche of pessimism with which many of the hermits were full of at the moment.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Cleo was anxious, False was False and Iskall hadn’t come out of the guest room aside from when he came out to get food and even that was very rare.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She was anxious for Cleo and False and Iskall, everyone really, especially Doc and Joe. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Were they starving? Getting tortured? Or were they under some spell of Hush’s? Maybe they were dead, or worse then dead. Maybe. . .</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">No she needs to not let this all collapse underneath her. They are all scared for Joe and Doc. But being scared doesn’t always help, especially in this situation. In this situation they need to hold action to help in anyway they can.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And help needed to come fast for her missing friends, andmost likely quickly.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was quiet in the bathroom although his head was loud. So loud, so obnoxious.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was grateful for Hush’s silence. For the bliss of quiet. Hopefully the riot in his brian would cease enough for Hush to allow him to become something better, something greater than this pathetic excuse of a person.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He hated how weak he looked, how could his other self stand this mess of a body. looking at it made him queasy almost, this was the person his liege entrusted with spying? This was the person Hush wanted first? This person couldn’t even fight back control.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He looked in the mirror, red eyes met red eyes, although they flickered into darker shades at times.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The smoothness of the sink didn’t help his anger at himself and the prominent smell of honey and flowers envoleped him in an uncomfortable hug.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Glaring dagger at his body gave way to him seeing blues and purples coating his neck. Bruises, although he wasn’t sure as to how they got there.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A faint memory and voice echoed in his brain, a thought of blasphemy on its tongue.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He blocked it out. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The cluttering of noise was silenced a little bit more and his once distracted demeanor was hurried away to make room for urgency. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He quickly washed his hands, unsure as to how long he’d been spacing out. The faucet chirped to life and the noise of water filled his ears, breaking the calming silence.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Walking out of the bathroom his ears pricked up and small noises quickly barraged his senses. He walked it off, allowing himself to masquerade as the person who he hated. Who hated themself.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As he got closer to the office door the noise and static climbed higher.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He sighed quietly and opened the door to find both Xisuma and Impulse feverishly typing and looking worried by the second.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Must’ve finally found something wrong. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He refrained a chuckle, sitting down and giving both of them a questioning look. Neither of them looked up though. Both caught up in processing information.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“So, what did I miss exactly?” He pulled his voice into a more sincere and worried tone trying his best to look confused.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“We found some faulty code in my computer system somehow, it’s been issuing commands for some sort of virus but it doesn’t make sense. How did someone even get into the computer to begin with or hack it. It’s just-“ he rambled trying his best to rap his mind round the situation. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Impulse looked up from his computer to look at Tango instead. Trying to gauge Tango’s apathy.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And Tango of course brought his most convincing mask to the table, the cards set and a winning hand before him.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The other looked at him, worry coating every bit of Impulse’s face.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But he held up the mask so closely to his face that Impulse seemed convinced and Tango’s body relaxed a bit at that.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Another voice echoed with loud and relenting thoughts, all of them no’s and disrespect was dripping off its blasphemous mouth.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">One thing off the to do list then</span> </em>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">And one more to go.</span> </em>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A light tap resounded from the door and she tried her best to be as calm as she needed to be.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Mhm?” A just as quiet voice answered.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She opened and peaked her head through.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Iskall sat on the red bed, their green jacket vibrant as always. A laptop sat next to him and blue light shone brightly from it. They smiled softly at her. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Hello Stress.” Their accented voice was dry almost, most likely due to unuse. His eyes didn’t look tired enough for bags but just enough that she knew he was definitely not getting enough sleep.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Hi Iskall. Just wanted to check on you and the like and I brought some food as well.” She gave him a smile as well and showed the bowl to him.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A grumbling sound came from his stomach at the sight of it, and the smell filled the room.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was a stew to say the least, mushrooms and beef lay calmly in it and a glob of mashed potatoes laid neatly to the side.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She sat at the foot of the bed, passing the bowl as carefully as possible.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The rough, almost beard like blanket was comforting to touch although itchy.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Thank you, Stress.” He said, blowing on the hot substance and trying their best not to burn themself as they ate.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Your welcome,” She picked a bit of unnecessary pieces of the woolen blanket out and started twirling it round her fingers, trying to think of words. “Have you been doing okay?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Good, it could be better, but I’m good. I was trying to crack some stuff for my arm, but of course nothing makes any sense.” He laughed a bit, though anxiety seemed to be drowning him.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She waited a minute for anything else, but she got the memo, he didn’t want to talk about what was happening.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Looking up from her twiddling she saw a pained look in Iskall’s eye. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Alright then. If you wanna talk at all, please do ask.” She got up and hugged him and smiled once more at them.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Love y’all &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 15 - Foreign Thoughts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Scar and Cub hangout. Doc gets hit with guilt.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: blood and crystal gore (not in much detail)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He was happy to finally be catching up with his friend. </p><p> </p><p>Over the past few hours, they’d watched movies, studied over Scar’s interesting build ideas and now they sat reading. </p><p>Well, more so Cub reading aloud whilst Scar seemed to be dozing off and Jellie curled up on his lap.</p><p> </p><p>The book in question that Cub was reading was leather-bound and dyed to a deep purple color. On it was scrawled in a golden script the title, which read The Reckoning From Within.</p><p> </p><p>It was a simple plot with time travel, magic, and wonder as well as pain and strife.</p><p> </p><p>As of right now, the characters were figuring out what exactly their little crystal totems did and he was enthusiastic for them.</p><p> </p><p>And then he remembered the whole reason he’d come over.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> The crystals.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>“Crap” Scar looked up drowsily and jellies ears perked up. “I entirely forgot.” His brain tried to form more words and thoughts but they all went sideways and were instead a mantra of him beating himself up.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> I’m so stupid, why didn’t I fu- </em>
</p><p> </p><p>“Wh-what?” Scar’s groggy voice broke the void of negativity.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry, just forgot bout the whole crystal thing at my place.”</p><p> </p><p>“Cr-Crystal thing?” Scar’s notably confused face became even more confused. “Cub what do you mean by crystal thing?” </p><p> </p><p>He looks at Cub’s demeanor. “Wait wait wait, please don’t tell me you dropped em in the void like Grian did, cause those took me so long to find and I wouldn’t want bad luck or whatever get placed on you cause-“</p><p> </p><p>“No no no no no, I didn’t drop em in the void Scar.” Cub closed the book, his eyes averting away from Scar’s. “They kinda started. . . spreading.” </p><p> </p><p>Cub’s voice was hushed and Scar could barely hear it. But he registered the words and his eyes widened greatly.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s not good,  not good at all. Um, we should probably go and fix that-“ Scar almost sat up but he immediately refrained from it due to Jellie. He gently nudged her to leave his lap and she in return mewed, reluctantly getting up. She gave him a very sad look as he walked over to his small bookcase.</p><p> </p><p>Many of the books were enchanted and the rest were manuals and how to’s and the like. He simply plucked a quite thin looking one off and flipped through it.</p><p> </p><p>“Spreading, spreading, spreadi- Aha! If your crystals are spreading, promptly take them out at the source within the hour.” Scar’s eyes were wider then Keralis’ as he tried his best to read the rest in his head. “So um, yea that’s not good.”</p><p> </p><p>“Scar, please don’t tell me that those crystals aren’t gonna be a world-destroying sorta scenario.” </p><p> </p><p>“No, hopefully, no. If it is then hoo boy do we need some help.” Scar looked up from the book and found Cub giving him a very concerned look. “Hey, don’t worry, we can still get em outta there, it’s just gonna be a little bit harder. So long as we don’t like succumb to their power or whatever this should be an easy fix.” Scar gave him a goofy smile, while Cub’s concerned expression was still very much visible.</p><p> </p><p>“Scar, please repeat that sentence.”</p><p> </p><p>“So long as we don’t succumb to their power this should be an easy fix?” Scar gave him a puzzled expression and then his eyes widened even further. “Oh.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>After a couple of minutes of trying to calm down, he finally looked up to see Joe, on the floor, unmoving.    </p><p>    </p><p>Doc searched for some sign of breathing or movement from his friend and thankfully found steady breaths. He looked toward Joe’s mouth, finding the haunting black and shimmering thread sealing his mouth.    </p><p>    </p><p>He felt a haunting of those threads and almost puked up the little bit of food that was still in his system.    </p><p>    </p><p>“Like the handiwork, little goat? The poor dear needed a little bit of silence eh?” They chuckled with their layered voice, amusement so visible on their ever-changing face. “Now, I suppose it’s your turn.”    </p><p>    </p><p>His eyes widened and immediately pushed himself as far away from Hush as possible. Electricity went through his system, he pushed back from the field.    </p><p>    </p><p>His eyes skirted about the room, trying to see exactly what they would do to him.    </p><p>    </p><p>“Don’t just jump to conclusions so quickly.” They walked casually over to him and smiled. They cupped his chin, eyes showing no remorse. “Now, let's see how far you break, Doc” in a split second Hush’s voice collapsed from the discordant mess to a hyper sounding voice he blinked and their hand was off his face and he looked up to see someone he wasn’t expecting.    </p><p>    </p><p>“B-Bdubs?”     </p><p>    </p><p>The other gave a smile, “Ya know it.” His red bandanna flapped in the wind.    </p><p>    </p><p>Wind? Wh-    </p><p>    </p><p>Blinking again gave him an answer of a scene all too familiar and eery.    </p><p>    </p><p>Humid air suffocated his lungs and his heart rate picked up. He looked up at Bdubs seeing him clad in clothes Doc had thought he’d burned.      </p><p>    </p><p>“Welcome back to the jungle, Doc!” As he spoke he saw the all too familiar vines climbing up Bdubs.    </p><p>    </p><p>“Why are we here?” He spoke calmly, although his voice faltered seeing vines try and climb up his ankles. He got up hurriedly and looked around trying to find the bastard that did this. “Hush, where are you, you coward!” </p><p> </p><p>Bdubs giggled, “Aw were you having fun terrorizing someone without me?”</p><p> </p><p>Doc stepped back and as soon as he did shock coursed through him. “Shit.”</p><p> </p><p>“Tsk, tsk your dirty mouth is really showing, huh.” The vines grew more around him. Little thorns pierced into his ankles and dug enough that he was unable to move without giving a short scream of pain. “Look at that.” Bdubs whistled. “Seems like the jungle doesn’t favor you anymore buddy.” </p><p> </p><p>“Dammit Bdubs, the jungle has nothing to give you. It can’t help you and it sure as he-“ the vines had grown up past his hips and coiled further. He let out another yelp of pain and tears sprung in his eye.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you scared, Doc? Huh, never thought I’d see the day.” He stepped slowly toward Doc, a grin spread, and in a second, Doc saw the Bdubs he’d known for, forever.</p><p> </p><p>And then the vines wrapped around his torso and back. And the thorns, although small, riddled his coat with blood.</p><p> </p><p>“If only the rest of the NHO could see you now. Helpless and oh so lost.” He patted the cyborg’s head and moved to the side of Doc. </p><p> </p><p>“They’d agree with me that the jungle is a deathtrap.” He tried to be resolute in his tone and he glared at the other.</p><p> </p><p>Bdubs’ head cocked and he chuckled. “You believe so, huh.” He walked to where Doc was facing forward although in a blink he wasn’t Bdubs, he was Beef. “Cause I don’t mind this place. Lovely trees, perfect for buildings. Perfect weather. What wouldn’t you like about it?” </p><p> </p><p>“That it fucks with your mind. That it destroys your morality to the point that you scare everyone that you know and love.” Doc looked at him defiantly. “Beef, you know for a fact that this hell hole doesn’t do jack squat to help you in any way.”</p><p> </p><p>The vines coiled back from Beef for the slightest and his eyes seemed less glazed, but he kept a smug smirk on his face.</p><p> </p><p>“It frees your mind, Doc. You know you miss the sweet release of all those horrible thoughts in your head.” He stepped closer to Doc, “Wouldn’t you just want some silence?”</p><p> </p><p>Beef walked nonchalantly behind him, looping back around and showing a different face. </p><p> </p><p>“You know who else could help with silence, Doc?” Etho brought out a very thin blade, twirling it close to Doc’s face. “A little birdie told me, you’ve already met 'em, you know them as Hush I presume? The coward as you put it.”</p><p> </p><p>Etho brought the knife closer to him and he tried to pull himself as far away from the blade as possible. </p><p> </p><p>“Silence for your mind would help. You wouldn’t have to worry about Bdubs dying,” a flash of imagery flickered in front of him of Bdubs falling, of him bloody and wrecked to the bone with no pulse. “Or Beef.” Another flash, images of Beef wrought his mind. “Or me, or Scar or Cub or Ren, really anyone that you care about. All the people you’ve failed one way or another.”</p><p> </p><p>The images continued, one more gruesome and bloodier than the last. There was so much blood. And death. </p><p>And screams.</p><p> </p><p>He realized that he was now kneeling on the jungles floor, vines almost all gone.</p><p> </p><p>He felt hot tears run down his face, although he was unsure as to when he’d started crying.</p><p> </p><p>Etho knelt “The jungle should be the least of your worries, little Goat.” Etho’s smooth voice escalated quickly to a chaotic mess of noises and words.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>He was shaking.</p><p> </p><p>His palms sweating a bit. Eyes darting about the sight before him.</p><p> </p><p>Crystals grew, towering above them, shimmering in the late evening sunlight. It was kinda beautiful, in a weird way. He was slightly compelled to walk over to them and see them up close.</p><p> </p><p>He stepped a little bit closer to them, mesmerized by the fractals of light they cast.</p><p> </p><p>Cub gave him a look, stopping Scar in his tracks.</p><p> </p><p>Right, right, right, tainted crystals mess with the mind.</p><p> </p><p>He battered himself, trying to grasp that phrase fully in his mind.</p><p> </p><p>“So, guess we should go and stop this crystal biz huh?” Cub gave Scar a reassuring smile as he asked. Scar drummed his fingers lightly in the air as he nodded.</p><p> </p><p>“Onwards I suppose then.” Cub turned from him and started walking slowly, closing the long distance between them and the monstrosities.</p><p> </p><p>Scar followed suit, nervous drumming turning to little circles with his fingers.</p><p> </p><p>The ever-looming crystals were closer now and he felt a slight twinge of pain behind his eyes, a small headache blooming.</p><p> </p><p>He looked to Cub, whose face was contorted into a grimace.</p><p> </p><p>“Cub you okay there?” He clenched his jaw a bit but looks up and gave Scar another smile.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m fine, I’m fine really. Just kinda have like a sorta headache.” He waved his arms a bit trying to wrap his mind around words. “It’s fine though, this happened last time as well.” Scar’s eyes flitted over Cub trying to see if he was joking, and of course, he wasn’t. </p><p> </p><p>“L- Last time?.” Realizing that that sentence slipped out Cub seemed a bit more anxious and gritted his teeth more. “Cub, what do you mean by last time?”</p><p> </p><p>Cub's eyes darted quickly and landed on the now encased pyramid. “I- ugh kinda, this kinda happened before all this. I had left the crystals out and they started growing. They gave off a slight pain but nothing like this. And before I came over to your place it was a small headache at best.” </p><p> </p><p>“This really isn’t good.” He mumbled, looking at the mineral. “Let’s get this over with then.”</p><p> </p><p>Cub heard the last bit and took his hand into scars giving him a reassuring squeeze. “We got this, dude.” And yet again Cub led the way even closer to the gems and with every step Scar felt sick to his stomach, his mind hurt with some form of loud ringing and a large headache. He felt like he didn’t have the brunt of it though as he heard Cub’s all too familiar grunts of annoyance and hurt. </p><p> </p><p>And then they were directly in front of the dark red of a crystal, minds throbbing either he immense amount of energy. Scar tried to blink away the pain but it just got worse as a ringing continued.</p><p> </p><p>Bringing their pickaxes out they tried their best to maneuver through the crystal.</p><p> </p><p>Soft whispers seemed to echo as they got closer to the middle, and the white noise seemed to crackle in and out like a dead radio channel at two in the morning.</p><p> </p><p>And then, a blink of the eye, his sight was a deep red. </p><p> </p><p>His eyes snapped open and he gasped for air. </p><p> </p><p>He patted himself but found nothing out of the ordinary aside some crystallized red fragments near the tips of his fingers. He tried his best to scratch them of but the seemed to be embedded into his skin and pulling blood like a water pump.</p><p> </p><p>Looking up he found a similar Cub, although the crystals had spread farther and seemed to have consumed his hands fully, blood dripping down the similar colored gems.</p><p> </p><p>The headaches pounded harder across his skull.</p><p>And the fight between mind and spirit would soon enough hit them.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Did I try my best to get this up to 3,000 words, yes yes I tried, sadly it’s only 2,000 words but regardless here’s y’all’s treat for having to deal with me.<br/>Y’all can steal my kneecaps idc<br/>Hope you enjoyed &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 16 - Tears Sting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Beef rambles.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Annoyance was a thing he feared. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He felt like was just putting to many horrible things onto Beef’s shoulders.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">First he spilled everything, aside from the uncomfortable parts, to his friend as if he were a dumping ground for overgrown shrubbery. The shrubbery in this sense being his incompetence and anxiousness.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Secondly, Beef felt like it was his duty to help Wels by staying over and making sure he was ok. And sure Wels was thankful for that, but the thought that this was all stemmed from an annoyance grew immensely over the course of yesterday and now today.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His itch to run or scream was high as well. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And the ringing, dear god the ringing was encompassing him so much at the moment. He just wanted it to be quiet for once, to be silenced.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His mind jumped between this and the impending doom of Hush like a small child would jump between pieces of furniture in a game. He’d be standing on one end and then be put in a running start toward the next collapsing platform of anxiety.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">
    <em>What if this entire thing was just a dream and I’m still slumbering and everything’s going to shit or maybe I’m still in Hush’s horrible horrible cells just deteriorating and becoming a mindless good for nothing puppet for their games and-</em>
  </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He felt a splash of something on his hand.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Looking he saw a little tear drop had made its way haphazardly to it. He brought his arm up to wipe the little bit of tears away before Beef could see him.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">He probably looked like a mess sitting on that bed. </span>His knees curled up to his chest now, tail sitting somewhat in a circle about him. His long hair probably unkempt and he was to tired to braid it.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was too tired to do anything.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A creak of a floorboard immediately made him look up.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Blue eyes met blue eyes, one pair like cerulean and the other sky blue.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The cerulean eyes accompanied face was concerned and Wels immediately put his head back down. Embarrassed and stressed that Beef would say something about his demeanor.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Instead he heard quiet shuffling of feet and a gentle placement of some form of dinner ware on his bedside table. The bed dipped downward.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Do you wanna talk?” He gave a slight head shake as a no.”Is it alright if I braid this then?” He peeked at Beef and gave a nod, then promptly returned to staring blankly in his curled up form.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Beef got up just enough to nab the brush from the vanity without disturbing Wels to much, promptly brushing out the knotted mess.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Each time the brush went through his hair he breathed in and out, trying to get the rhythm to help his mind to calm down. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Beef finished brushing and carefully started braiding.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Is it alright if I talk, ramble, whatever it’s called while I do this or would you prefer for me to be quiet, or like sing or something to help, buddy.” The ringing was very much there but Beef’s voice anchored him more then the quiet.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He gently said, “You can talk, yea.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Ok, cool.” </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And he did. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Beef had to think of a topic of course first so in the little bit of silence before the noise Wels spaced out a bit whilst staring at the wall.</span>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Snow is pretty elusive, and I know that it happens in more cold areas and I’ve seen snow but why doesn’t it fall everywhere. Like what I’m trying to say is that since the atmosphere and stuff is cold shouldn’t it be snowing loads? Do water droplets just kinda, I don’t know, go from snowflakes one minute and then raindrops in another? Honestly though that’s how mountains get snow, cause of how high up they are so I’m assuming the snowflake thing is correct.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Wels started drumming his fingers on his knees, almost to a rhythm of sorts as Beef continued.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Makes sense as to why llamas got that fluffy wool. I’d get a sweater of their wool. That’d be so comfortable.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He went on as Wels slowly got his bearings back. By then the braid was finished and Wels drumming was more to a beat then the random almost keyboard typing rhythm and it calmed him even more down.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Beef gently grabbed the now cool plate of food and handed it to Wels with a smile.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Beef?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Mhm, yea Wels?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Thank you.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Anytime, buddy. I mean this universe can be scary, very scary. And being pulled through this weird place with someone helping you out is always nice.” There was a hint of understanding that was very much there in Beef’s voice.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>&lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 17 - Worry Resounds</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Joe and Impulse think, one of them a bit too much.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Crystal gore and blood</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Silence.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Utter silence.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">No words went between the two of them as they sat there spacing out, blood trickling slightly from from one and the other in need of some shears.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">The silence is overwhelming sure but what are we supposed to do at this point? Talk? Definitely not, what with me and my predicament. I pretty much have no way of speaking, unless I learn sign language but then Doc would have to learn it as well. Wait I could pantomime instead that should work. Hopefully.</span> </em>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><em>What what would we talk about anyways?Sure can’t talk bout whateve</em>r <em>hell this is and can’t just laugh anything off. </em></span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">Ugh, damn Hush! </span> </em>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The quiet after the storm was nauseating to say the least. But at least that storm wasn’t brewing at that minute. They were safe, as safe as one could be in such a predicament as this.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was feeling very out of it, his mind fazing in and out of the construct of time. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He had to fix this mess on the admin computer for sure but the answer to simple algorithms were to out of his reach. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It seemed like minutes passed until he blinked and suddenly it was well past noon and nearly near sunset.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Um X,” He turned to where the Admin would be, although the chair was without his armor clad friend. His eyes widened a bit.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“He went to get some tea, don’t worry.” Impulse snapped his head over to Tango. He’d been quiet compared to, well basically anytime they ever hung out. It was unnerving to say the least. “Sorry didn’t mean to startle you, Impulse.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“It’s-It’s fine,” he rubbed his eyes feeling tired after staring at a screen for hours, “I’m just kinda out of it I guess.” He huffed, “I don’t know, man it’s weird.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“That’s fair.” And he left it at that, nothing more. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">There was long pause as Tango seemed to stare off and give a slight grimace. His stomach grumbled which seem to snap both of them out of the quiet.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I should probably go get some food.” Tango just nodded and turned his chair dramatically around, although the theatrical part of it felt off.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Impulse shrugged it off. For all he knows Tango could just be tired, or just-</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">What else would he be if he weren’t tired? Sad? No, Tango would have at least said something, hopefully. Maybe angry, but is he angry at the situation or Impulse? If Impulse somehow hurt Tango in some way, Tango would’ve said something. Right?</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His legs had taken him to the kitchen in a matter of seconds and he found a calm looking Xisuma with a cup of tea, his helmet off and curly hair a frizz.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Xisuma looked up and gave a soft smile.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Hey Impulse, how’s the code going?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“It’s going for sure,” he opened the fridge trying to spot anything vaguely appetizing although nothing caught his eye. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Oh?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I just, I don’t know, feel off” He took the loaf of bread off the counter settling on just making some toast to satiate himself. Although the want for food slowly diminished in the background.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I don’t know man, and it doesn’t help that Tango’s been weird.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Tango’s always weird, dude. Hell all of our weird in our own ways, I know that sounds cliche but-“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“No like, not weird like that just not like how he normally is. Like he’s been quiet and less hyper and it’s just weird to me seeing him like that. Without his brightness, ya know?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">X nodded, although notably putting the puzzle pieces together in his own mind.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A small ding rung from the toaster oven of a furnace. Impulse precisely took the toast out and buttered it. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“He’s probably just tired-“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“And if he’s not?” Impulse voice was soft now, quiet almost as he looked downcast at the floor. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Then I don’t know dude.” X stood up and walked to his shorter friend. “At least he’s here though, right?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yeah, that’s tru-“ heavy footsteps resounded from the stairs leading down from the hangar bay causing both men to fall silent.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Impulse instinctively clenched his fists at his sides, ready enough for a fight but not enough to accidentally hit a friend.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The stairwell door flew open with a panting Scar and a bloody and limp looking Cub with one of his arms slung over Scar’s shoulders.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Sc-Scar?! What the hell hap-“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“The crystals.” Scar gasped for air. “They, they’re everywhere and I can’t get ‘em off and I can’t get ‘em out and-“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Hey hey hey, calm down. Lemme take Cub over to a bed and we can figure this all out. Alright?” Impulse walked calmly over to Scar, Scar gladly giving him Cub and Impulse lifted Cub up bridal style. “Please tell me you have a medbay, X.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I do yeah, although small.” </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Good.” </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Xisuma led them all quickly down the stairwell, then through a hallway to the aforementioned medbay.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Impulse put Cub gently down on the bed.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">X patched up Cub as Scar tried to explain the situation as best he could.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“So basically the crystals Cub had kinda got all rotten and started growing but like small. Supposedly though, they sprouted out of his base like a plant or something so he took em out and buried ‘em a bit always from his base, which I mean that’s not standard procedure or whatever with tainted crystals so they grew again. Thankfully he came to me to ask for help before they got bigger but of course he forgot cause of me.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Scar was looking at his now twiddling fingers. Still a bit out of breathe from before but still keeping up with his relatively rambling like way of passing on information.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“So we went back together when he finally remembered, the dingus, but they were huge. Like really big and they gave us big headaches and it was a mess. But we just went on ahead and dug into it to try to get to the source and then well that happened.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He gestured toward the crystals that grew out of Cubs hands snaking up his arms like veins. It was primarily red but bits of greens, blues and yellows seemed to grow out making the crimson color on Cub grow.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Are you ok, Scar? Like did you get any of those gems?” Impulse asked concern prominent on his features.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Scar lifted his arms out of his purple sleeves and showed Impulse.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The crystals weren’t as large as Cub’s but theyseemed to be growing upward near veins. The blood that did fall was small like a paper cut but it was still bleeding thoroughly.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“We should probably get Stress down here soon.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I’ll get on that, X. Make sure these two are okay, okay X?” </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I will, I will.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter 18 - Tricks can be Played</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Stress relaxes a bit and Tango tries to find Impulse and X.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: slight crystal gore</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I’ve called you all here today for one reason, and one reason alone.” She looked about the table at the other three. A smug smile on her face.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“T-to cook dinner?” A very confused Cleo said.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“No, it’s that time of the week. Which means! Game Night!” </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Game Night?! Wow, haven’t heard that in a while.” Iskall said with a small smile as they fiddled around with his hoodie strings.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“And which game exactly would tonight entail?” False gave a wry grin. “Uno? Life? Clue?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Stress’ smile never faltered as she shook her head to the answers. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“It’s Sorry tonight guys!” Quickly grabbing the board game out of a chest, she placed it rather harshly onto the table, giving Iskall a bit of a scare. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Goodness gracious, Stress, what the heck dude.”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Sorry, sorry.” She was quickly setting it up, giving a sheepish smile now. “Just- I’ve wanted to do this for a while but everyone’s been so busy and what with the whole,” she waved her hands about trying to phrase everything correctly, “- thing going on. So what better time then before dinner hmm?”</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“There we go! All nice and organized.” </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The cards were neatly stacked and shuffled, and the little pawns sat in their respected areas.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The first card was drawn by False and it was printed with a four.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Cards were pulled again, and again until Cleo got a coffee stained two. She stuck her tongue out at False and swiftly moved one of the red pawns. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Multiple rounds of card pulling and slight frustration from Iskall gave Stess the lead with two of the blue pawns already at home and as Stress put it, “They probably are nice and warm in a cozy cottage waiting for their last friend” That got a good chuckle from the rest of the table, all of them smiling.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Cleo was close behind with only one pawn in home and False catching up. Iskall still had a pawn in start and was trying his best to get a lucky one.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Cleo drew leaving the floor for Iskall. He pulled the card and flipped it over and gave a smug smile, placing down the all to familiar Sorry card. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Oh, well look at that.” They picked up their remaining pawn and knocked False’s, very close to home, yellow pawn. “Sorry False.” </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She glared at him, obviously containing some frustration and competitiveness. Iskall glared back, soon developing a small staring contest. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was silent for about four senconds before Cleo started laughing slightly at the two. Stress lightly tapped her and gave way to her equally loud stifle of a laugh which soon cascaded the others.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As they laughed a soft buzz cut Stress’ chuckle short. She brought out her communicator and seeing a rather urgent private message.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong>ImpulseSV</strong>&gt;: Come quick with as many healing potions as you can to X’s place, something happened to Cub and Scar</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">&lt;<strong><em>Stressmonster101</em></strong>&gt;: On my way</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">***</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His ears rang quietly in the silence. He didn’t quite understand why it was so quiet to begin with much less as to why Impulse or Xisuma hadn’t come back.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The little whisper in his mind simple said that he should go check to see if their ok, to make sure they weren’t caught in the crooked hands of Hush. But he easily dismissed that little bit of weird morality.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A different sort of voice followed though, this one being more so a sudden urge to move and do something rather than an actual voice.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It seem to lift his spine up in a way that it felt like a hook slowly latching itself into his nervous system.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He got up and gave a small smile to himself, realising where that pull came from.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He shook his arms around as he walked trying to get the unruly mask back on. His arms soon stopped and instead began shaking like a chihuahua.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Dear god he was pathetic like this, but the charade couldn’t be broken, at least not yet.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The small hallway outside the office was devoid of noise and as he drew near, the kitchen was silent as well. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His hands started fidgeting about, which was more so a habitual impulse than anything.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><em>Where the hell are they?</em> The pull drew him toward the stairwell and he could hear crying of some sort. <em>Bingo</em>.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="s1">Indeed. </span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A methodical and layered voice echoed throughout his head. It gave him comfort in a weird foreign way.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He moved down the small flight of stairs until the door leading outside flung open with a frazzled looking Stress with potions stacked atop her arms. She rushed down the stairs barely registering Tango.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">False stepped out the doorframe and immediately caught sight of Tango and gave a soft smile. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“See you’re doing well, mate. Do you mind explaining exactly what’s going on right now.” False asked as she started descending the steps to the medbay.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You’re guess is as good as mine at this point.” </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">As they drew near he found out what exactly was happening, a unfamiliar but jarringly familiar face laid at the cot although candy like rocks peppered them greatly and seemed to be growing like flowers.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He almost hurled but his mind and body willed the bile to stay down. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He gave himself the satisfaction of widening his eyes. Scolding himself for almost slipping back into the version of himself who was powerless.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Stress had plopped the potions in the corner and got to work interrogating everyone aside from False and himself.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A calm before the storm <br/>Hope y’all enjoyed &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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